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PRINCETON    •   NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

Presbyterian  Church    in  the  U.S.A. 
Department    of  History 


Presb.  8'd  ef  Hub.  Colt. 


1^/oCX 


THE         MOV      "  £1 


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V" 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

OF 

CALVIN, 

THE  REFORMER, 
KEVIEWED  AND  DEFENDED. 


BY   TBE 

Rev.  THOMAS  "SMYTH,  D.  D. 

Author  of  Lectures  on  the  Apostolical  Succession,  Presbytery  and 
not  Prelacy  the  Scriptural  and  Primitive  Polity,  Ecclesiastical  Repub- 
licanism, An  Ecclesiastical  Catechism,  &c. 


Quid  enim  tota  ejus  vita  nisi  tempestas  veluti  qnaedam 
perpetua  fuit  ?— Mords. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PRESBYTERIAN    BOARD    OF    PUBLICATION, 

PAUL  T.   JONES,   PUBLISHING   AGENT. 

1844. 


Printed  by 

WILLIAM  S.  MARTIEN. 


CONTENTS. 


SECTION  I. 

Page 

Introductory  remarks,  -  -  9 

SECTION  II. 

Calvin  was  the  most  eminent  of  all  the  Re- 
formers, and  remarkable  for  his  courage,       13 

SECTION  III. 

The  genius  and  works  of  Calvin,  -  19 

SECTION  IV. 

Calvin  vindicated  from  the  charge  of  ambition, 
and  his  true  greatness  and  wonderful  influ- 
ence shown,        -  -  -  -     25 

SECTION  V. 

Calvin  vindicated  from  the  charge  of  illiberal- 
ity,  intolerance,  and  persecution,         -  33 

SECTION  VI. 

Calvin  vindicated  from  the  charge  of  a  want 
of  natural  affection  and  friendship,  -     4S 


4  •       CONTENTS. 

SECTION  VII. 

Page 

The  obligations  which  we  owe  to  Calvin,  as 
American  citizens  and  Christians,  illustra- 
ted, -  -  52 

SECTION  VIII. 

The  closing  scenes  of  Calvin's  life,    -  -     59 

SECTION  IX. 

A  supplementary  vindication  of  the  ordination 
of  Calvin,      -  -  -  65 

APPENDIX. 

The  Will  of  John  Calvin,     -  -  -     81 

The  views  of  Calvin  on  Prelacy,  vindicated 
by  the  Rev.  Samuel  Miller,  D.  D.,       -  87 

Addenda,  -  -  -  -     115 


PREFACE. 


The  fact  that  John  Calvin  was  led,  by 
the  grace  of  God,  to  embrace  and  defend 
all  the  essential  principles  of  doctrine 
and  polity,  which  distinguish  the  sys- 
tem of  Presbyterianism,  has  exposed 
him  to  the  unceasing  calumny  of  all 
those  to  whom  that  system  is  unpalata- 
ble. Romanists,  prelatists,  and  errorists 
of  every  name,  have  vied  with  one  an- 
other in  their  efforts  to  blacken  his  cha- 
racter and  detract  from  his  fame.  The 
defence  of  Calvin  against  these  misre- 
presentations is  necessary  for  the  glory 


t>  PREFACE. 

of  that  God  who  called  him  by  his  rich 
grace;  for  the  honour  of  that  truth  in 
whose  cause  Calvin  lived  and  died ;  and 
for  the  maintenance  of  that  church  to 
which  he  was  attached,  and  which  is 
built  upon  the  foundation  laid  by  apos- 
tles and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself 
being  the  chief  corner  stone.  And  this 
defence  is  in  a  peculiar  manner  the 
privilege  and  duty  of  Presbyterians, 
with  whom  Calvin  has  been  so  gene- 
rally identified. 

Actuated  by  these  views,  the  alumni 
of  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Prince- 
ton appointed  the  author  to  deliver  a 
discourse  in  vindication  of  the  life  and 
character  of  Calvin,  at  their  anniversary 
meeting  in  May,  1843.  The  substance 
of  the  following  little  work  was  accord- 
ingly delivered  in  Philadelphia,  in  the 


PREFACE.  7 

second  Presbyterian  church,  during  the 
sessions  of  the  General  Assembly.  At 
the  request  of  the  alumni,  it  has  since 
been  published  in  some  of  our  religious 
papers;  and  it  is  now  prepared  by  the 
desire  of  the  Board  of  Publication  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  for  publication 
as  one  of  their  volumes. 

That  it  may  lead  the  members  of  our 
beloved  church  more  highly  to  estimate 
and  prize  the  character  and  achieve- 
ments of  Calvin;  that  they  may  thus 
be  excited  to  bless  God,  (who  raised  up 
Calvin,  and  qualified  him  for  his  work) 
for  his  past  dealings  with  his  church, 
while  they  humbly  look  for  his  contin- 
ued guidance  and  protection — and  that 
the  inhabitants  of  this  country  may  be 
brought  by  it  more  deeply  to  appreciate 
the  influence  of  Calvin,  and  of  the  sys- 


8  PREFACE. 

tern  he  advocated,  in  securing  those 
blessings  of  religious  and  civil  freedom 
by  which  they  are  distinguished,  is  the 
sincere  prayer  of 

THE    AUTHOR. 


THE 

LIFE   AND   CHARACTER 


CALVIN. 


SECTION  I. 

INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS. 

Presbyterians,  that  is,  the  great  body  of 
the  reformed  church  throughout  the  world, 
have  been  very  commonly  denominated  Cal- 
vinists.  Not  that  they  are  followers  of  Calvin, 
either  in  doctrine  or  in  discipline,  since  the 
doctrines  and  discipline  embraced  by  Presby- 
terians existed  previous  to  the  appearance  of 
Calvin,  and  were  adopted,  and  not  originated, 
by  him.  Calvin,  however,  being  the  great 
theologian  of  the  reformers,  so  well  defended, 
so  clearly  expounded,  and  so  perfectly  sys- 
tematized these  principles,  as  to  connect  with 
them,  wherever  they  are  known,  his  illus- 
trious name.  The  term  Calvinist  was  first 
employed  in  the  year  1562,  in  reference  to 
the  standards  of  the  Huguenots  or  French 
reformed  churches,  which  Calvin  drew  up; 
from  which  time  it  came  to  be  employed 
as  characteristic  of  all  those  who  adopted 
2 


10  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

similar  doctrinal  principles.*  These  princi- 
ples, however,  no  more  originated  with  Cal- 
vin than  did  the  Bible,  for  they  are  the  very 
same  which  were  held  forth  by  the  apostles 
— which  were  proclaimed  in  all  the  apostolic 
churches — which  were  maintained  by  the 
ancient  Culdees,  by  the  Waldenses,  and  by 
other  pure  and  scriptural  bodies — and  which 
were  eminently  defended  by  the  celebrated 
Augustine,  and  by  other  divines,  in  every 
period  of  the  church. 

As  Presbyterians,  we  hold  no  principles 
which  are  not  found  in  the  Word  of  God. 
We  claim  no  antiquity  more  recent  than  the 
primeval  organization  of  the  church  of  God 
on  earth.  In  our  Christian  form,  we  build 
upon  the  only  foundation  laid  in  Zion,  the 
foundation  of  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus 
Christ  himself  being  the  chief  corner  stone. 
We  call  no  man  master  upon  earth.  We 
know  no  man  after  the  flesh.  We  call  nei- 
ther Abraham,  nor  Moses,  neither  Paul,  nor 
Augustine,  neither  Luther,  nor  Calvin,  our 
father.  We  are  in  subjection  to  no  man,  nor 
do  we  wear  the  name  or  livery  of  any.  We 
are  Christians  in  doctrine,  and  Presbyterians 
in  polity,  our  doctrine  being  deduced  from 
the  Scriptures,  and  Presbytery  being  the  only 
polity  known  to  the  apostles,  or  to  the  apos- 
tolic and  primitive  churches  of  Christ. 

But  while  we  so  speak,  let  us  not  be  sup- 
posed to  disparage  the  name  and  character 

*  Scott's  continuation  of  Milner,  p.  472. — Waterman's 
Life  of  Calvin,  p.  210. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  11 

of  Calvin,  or  to  deprecate,  as  either  shame 
or  reproach,  the  application  of  the  term  Cal- 
vinists.  In  the  great  body  of  Calvin's  prin- 
ciples— though  not  by  any  means  in  all — we 
concur.  To  the  life,  character,  and  conduct 
of  Calvin,  we  look  with  reverence  and  high 
esteem.  And  while  we  apologize  not  for  his 
errors,  or  his  infirmities,  yet  were  we  re- 
quired to  be  called  by  any  human  cognomen, 
there  is  perhaps  no  other  man,  since  the  days 
of  the  apostles,  by  whose  name  we  would 
prefer  to  be  designated. 

The  reputation  and  character  of  this  dis- 
tinguished reformer  have  been  opposed  by 
every  artifice  of  ingenuity,  sophistry,  and 
malignity.  The  vilest  and  most  baseless  ca- 
lumnies have  been  heaped  upon  his  memory. 
The  most  senseless  and  improbable  stories 
have  been  invented  to  blacken  his  character, 
and  to  detract  from  his  illustrious  fame.  A 
single  event,  distorted,  misrepresented,  and 
in  all  its  circumstances  imputed  to  his  single 
agency,  although  consummated  by  the  civil 
authorities  of  the  republic,  and  although  in 
accordance  with  the  established  sentiments 
of  the  age,  has  been  made  to  colour  his  whole 
life,  to  portray  his  habitual  conduct,  and  to 
cover  with  infamy  the  man  and  his  cause. 
Now,  in  these  very  efforts  of  his  enemies, 
romish  and  prelatist,  and  in  their  nature, 
source,  and  evident  design,  we  find  a  noble 
testimony  to  the  genius,  power,  and  worth  of 
Calvin.  He  who  opposes  himself  to  existing 
customs  and  prevalent  opinions,  must  antici~ 


12  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

pate  resistance  in  proportion  to  the  success 
with  which  his  efforts  are  accompanied. 
And  while  such  opposition,  in  itself  consid- 
ered, does  not  prove  that  such  a  man  is  right 
in  his  scheme  of  reformation,  but  only  that 
his  plan  involves  the  subversion  of  estab- 
lished forms,  yet  may  we  learn  the  character 
of  such  an  intended  reformation,  and  of  such 
a  bold  reformer,  by  the  very  nature  of  that 
opposition  which  is  brought  to  bear  against 
him.  And  if,  as  in  the  present  case,  we  find 
that,  in  order  to  withstand  the  overwhelming 
influence  of  such  a  man,  his  enemies  are 
driven  to  the  invention  of  forgeries,  and  the 
grossest  fabrications,  we  may  with  certainty 
infer,  that  his  personal  character  was  irre- 
proachable. In  like  manner,  when  these 
enemies  are  led  to  meet  the  arguments  of 
such  a  man,  by  personal  invective  and  abuse, 
we  may  be  equally  assured  that,  his  is  the 
cause  of  truth  and  righteousness,  and  theirs 
the  cause  of  error.  Truth  is  strong  in  her 
conscious  and  imperishable  virtue.  She  seeks 
therefore  the  light,  courts  investigation,  and 
offers  herself  to  the  most  impartial  scrutiny. 
Error,  on  the  contrary,  having  no  inward 
strength,  is  weak  and  cowardly.  She  seeks 
the  covert  and  the  shade.  She  clothes 
herself  in  the  garments  of  concealment.  She 
assumes  borrowed  robes  and  names,  and 
seeks  by  artifice  and  treachery  to  accomplish 
her  base  designs.  In  Calvin,  therefore,  we 
have  a  tower  built  upon  the  rock,  and  rear- 
ing its  lofty  head  to  the  clouds,  visible  from 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  13 

afar,  and  open  to  the  observation  of  all  men ; 
which,  though  the  floods  roar,  and  the  winds 
arise  against  it,  yields  not  to  the  fury  of  the 
tempest — because  its  foundations  are  secure. 
In  the  enemies  of  Calvin,  we  behold  the 
secret  plotters  of  his  ruin,  who,  sensible  of 
his  invincibility,  when  opposed  by  any  fair 
or  honourable  onset,  dig  deep  within  the 
bosom  of  the  earth,  and  there  concealed  by 
darkness,  and  buried  from  all  human  sight, 
ply  their  nefarious  arts  to  sap  and  undermine, 
and  by  well  concerted  stratagem  attempt  to 
overwhelm  in  destruction,  an  innocent  and 
unsuspecting  victim. 


SECTION    II. 

CALVIN    WAS    THE    MOST    EMINENT    OF    ALL    THE    REFORMERS, 
AND    REMARKABLE    FOR    HIS    COURAGE. 

"Calvin,"  said  Bishop  Andrews,  "was  an 
illustrious  person,  and  never  to  be  mentioned 
without  a  preface  of  the  highest  honour." 
"  Of  what  account,"  says  his  great  opponent, 
Hooker,  "  the  Master  of  Sentences  was  in  the 
Church  of  Rome,  the  same  and  more  amongst 
the  preachers  of  reformed  churches  Calvin 
had  purchased:  so  that  the  perfectest  divines 
were  judged  they,  which  were  skilfulest  in 
Calvin's  writings;  his  books  almost  the  very 
canon  to  judge  both  doctrine  and  discipline 
by."  And  again,  concerning  his  Commenta- 
ries and  his  Institutes,  which  together  make  up 


14  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

eight  parts  out  of  nine  of  his  works ;  Hooker 
adds,  "we  should  be  injurious  unto  virtue 
itself,  if  we  did  derogate  from  them  whom 
their  industry  hath  made  great.  Two  things 
of  principal  moment  there  are  which  have 
deservedly  procured  him  honour  through- 
out the  world:  the  one  his  exceeding  pains 
in  composing  the  Institutes  of  Christian 
Religion ;  the  other  his  no  less  industrious 
travails  for  exposition  of  holy  scripture,  ac- 
cording unto  the  same  institutions.  In  which 
two  things  whosoever  they  were  that  after 
him  bestowed  their  labour,  he  gained  the 
advantage  of  prejudice  against  them,  if  they 
gainsayed,  and  of  glory  above  them,  if  they 
consented." 

Such  was  the  estimation  in  which  Calvin 
was  held  by  his  cotemporaries,  both  conti- 
nental and  Anglican.  To  Cranmer  and  his 
associates  in  the  English  Reformation,  he  was 
all  in  all.  They  sought  his  counsel,  leaned 
upon  his  wisdom,  were  guided  by  his  direc- 
tions, and  sustained  by  his  consolations.  His 
name  is  found  enrolled  with  honour  in  the 
book  of  convocation  as  late  as  the  seven- 
teenth century,  and  his  spirit  still  breathes 
through  those  articles  which  have  preserved 
the  protestantism  and  the  orthodoxy  of  the 
English  church.* 

Among  the  continental  reformers,  Calvin 
was  equally  pre-eminent.  Giants  as  they 
were  in  intellect,  in  acquirement,  and  in 
prowess,  he  towered  above   them  all,  like 

*Lond.  Christian  Observer,  1803— p.  143,  144. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  15 

Saul  among  the  people  of  Israel.  Where  all 
were  great,  he  was  greatest.  Though  natu- 
rally less  courageous  than  Luther,  he  was 
enabled  to  manifest  a  superhuman  bravery, 
and  was,  even  in  this  respect,  not  a  whit 
behind  this  noble  champion  of  the  truth. 
"  He  was,"  says  Bayle,  "frighted  at  nothing." 
Exquisitely  sensitive  and  timid  by  constitu- 
tion, he  was,  from  his  earliest  years,  obliged 
to  bend  to  the  inflexible  rule  of  duty,  and 
thus  became  habituated  to  self-sacrifice. 
When  God  called  him  by  his  grace  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth  and  power  of  the 
gospel,  he  took  up  his  cross  to  follow  Jesus, 
suffering  the  loss  of  all  things,  and  not  count- 
ing his  life  dear  unto  him.  The  storm  of 
persecution  was  then  at  its  height.  Its  fiery 
bolts  were  spreading  consternation  and  alarm 
throughout  all  France.  The  parliament  was 
on  the  watch.  The  spies  of  the  Sorbonne 
and  of  the  monks  were  found  creeping  into 
churches  and  colleges,  and  even  into  the  re- 
cesses of  private  dwellings.  The  gens  cVarmes 
patroled  the  highways  to  hunt  down  every 
favourer  of  the  reform.*  Then  it  was  that 
Calvin  enlisted  as  a  good  soldier  under  the 
Captain  of  Salvation  ;  buckled  on  the  armour 
of  God,  and  threw  himself  boldly  on  the 
Lord's  side.  His  whole  subsequent  course 
proves  that,  through  the  grace  of  God,  he 
was  valorous  even  to  daring.     At  the  risk  of 

*  See  D'Aubigne's  Hist,  of  the  Ref.  vol.  3.  p.  643  — 
Eng.  ed. 


16  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

his  life,  he  ventured  back  to  Paris,  in  1532, 
in  the  very  midst  of  abounding  persecution, 
that  he  might  defend  the  truth.  While  the 
whole  city  of  Geneva  was  in  a  ferment  of 
rage,  he  hesitated  not  to  suspend  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  communion,  and  when  publicly 
debarred  the  use  of  the  pulpit,  to  appear  in 
it  as  usual.  When  the  plague  had  broken 
out,  and  was  carrying  death  and  destruction 
around,  Calvin  hesitated  not  to  offer  himself 
as  a  chaplain  to  its  infected  victims.  During 
his  contests  with  the  libertine  faction,  he  fre- 
quently attended  the  summons  of  the  senate, 
when  his  life  was  exposed  to  imminent  dan- 
ger from  the  swords  of  the  contending  par- 
ties, many  of  whom  were  anxious  for  an 
opportunity,  according  to  their  summary 
mode  of  punishment,  to  throw  him  into  the 
Rhone.  In  the  year  1553,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  Bertelier,  the  grand  council  of  two 
hundred  decreed  that  all  cases  of  excommu- 
nication should  be  vested  in  the  senate,  from 
which  body  Bertelier  obtained  two  letters  of 
absolution.  "  The  resolution  of  Calvin,  how- 
ever, was  taken,  and  he  was  not  to  be  daunt- 
ed. He  first  procured  the  senate  to  be  called 
together,  stated  his  views  and  his  determina- 
tion, and  endeavoured,  but  in  vain,  to  induce 
them  to  revoke  their  indulgence  granted  to 
Bertelier.  But  receiving  for  answer,  that 
"  the  senate  changed  nothing  in  their  former 
decision,"  he,  in  preaching  on  the  sunday 
morning  previously  to  the  administration,  in 
a  solemn  tone,  and  with  uplifted  hand,  ut- 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  17 

tered  severe  denunciations  against  profaners 
of  the  holy  mysteries:  "and  for  my  own 
part,"  said  he,  "  after  the  example  of  Chry- 
sostom,  I  avow  that  I  will  suffer  myself  to 
be  slain  at  the  table,  rather  than  allow  this 
hand  to  deliver  the  sacred  symbols  of  the 
Lord's  body  and  blood  to  adjudged  despisers 
of  God."  This  was  uttered  with  such  au- 
thority, and  produced  such  an  effect,  that 
Perrin  himself  immediately  whispered  to 
Bertelier  that  he  must  not  present  himself  as 
a  communicant.  He  accordingly  withdrew; 
and  the  sacred  ordinance,  says  Beza,  "  was 
celebrated  with  a  profound  silence,  and  under 
a  solemn  awe  in  all  present,  as  if  the  Deity 
himself  had  been  visible  among  them." 

But  there  was  another  scene  which  occur- 
red amid  those  factious  commotions,  by  which 
Calvin  was  continually  distressed,  which  de- 
serves to  be  immortalized.  Perrin  and  others 
having  been  censured  by  the  consistory,  and 
failing  to  obtain  redress  from  the  senate,  ap- 
pealed to  the  council  of  two  hundred.  Dis- 
order, violence  and  sedition  reigned  through- 
out the  city.  On  the  day  preceding  the 
assembly,  Calvin  told  his  brethren  that  he 
apprehended  tumult,  and  that  it  was  his  in- 
tention to  be  present.  Accordingly,  he  and 
his  colleagues  proceeded  to  the  council-house, 
where  they  arrived  without  being  noticed. 
Before  long,  they  heard  loud  and  confused 
clamours,  which  were  instantly  increasing. 
The  crowd  heaved  to  and  fro  with  all  the 
violence  of  a  stormy  ocean  chafed  into  m> 


18  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

governable  fury,  and  ready  to  overwhelm  its 
victims  in  destruction.  Calvin,  however, 
like  Cassar,  cast  himself,  alone  and  unpro- 
tected, into  the  midst  of  the  seditious  multi- 
tude. They  stood  aghast  at  his  fearless  pre- 
sence. His  friends  rallied  around  him.  Lift- 
ing his  voice,  he  told  them  he  came  to  oppose 
his  body  to  their  swords,  and  if  blood  was  to 
flow,  to  offer  his  as  the  first  sacrifice.  Rush- 
ing between  the  parties,  who  were  on  the 
point  of  drawing  their  swords  in  mutual 
slaughter,  he  obtained  a  hearing  ;  addressed 
them  in  a  long  and  earnest  oration ;  and  so 
completely  subdued  their  evil  purposes,  that 
peace,  order,  and  tranquillity  were  immedi- 
ately restored. 

Such,  by  the  grace  of  God,  was  the  weak, 
timorous,  and  shrinking  Calvin.  Firm  as  the 
mountains  of  his  country,  he  stood  unmoved 
amid  the  storms  that  beat  around  him,  and 
lifted  his  soul,  undaunted,  above  those  mists, 
which,  to  all  others,  shrouded  the  future  in 
terrific  gloom ;  but  through  which  his  faith, 
strong  in  the  promises  of  God,  could  behold 
afar  off  the  triumphs  of  the  cause.  As  the 
twelve  apostles,  who  fled,  like  frightened 
sheep,  at  the  approach  of  danger,  when  en- 
dued with  power  from  on  high,  were  made 
bold  as  lions,  so  did  the  perfect  love  of 
Christ's  truth  and  cause  cast  out  all  fear  from 
the  bosom  of  Calvin.  Even  in  point  of 
courage,  therefore,  he  was  not  inferior  to  the 
very  chiefest  of  reformers.  But  in  learning, 
in  sound  and  correct  judgment,  in  prudence 


OP    JOHN    CALVIN.  19 

and  moderation;  in  sagacity  and  penetra- 
tion ;  in  system  and  order ;  in  cultivation  and 
refinement  of  manners;  in  the  depth  and 
power  of  his  intellect,  Calvin  shone  forth 
amid  the  splendid  galaxy  of  illustrious  re- 
formers, the  star  of  the  first  magnitude  and 
brightest  lustre. 

Such  was  the  man  whose  life  and  charac- 
ter I  now  review. 


SECTION  III. 

THE  GENIUS  AND  THE  WORKS  OF  CALVIN. 

In  his  early  youth,  Calvin  manifested  that 
genius  and  eloquence  which  characterized 
him  as  a  man.  The  same  intensity  of  will, 
the  same  rapidity  of  thought,  the  same  re- 
tentiveness  of  memory,  the  same  comprehen- 
siveness of  judgment,  which  enabled  him  to 
discharge  the  inconceivable  labours  of  his 
maturer  years,  gave  him  an  easy  victory  over 
all  his  competitors  for  college  fame,  so  that 
it  became  necessary  to  withdraw  him  from 
the  ranks,  and  to  introduce  him  singly  to  the 
higher  walks  of  learning.  In  his  twenty- 
third  year,  he  published  a  commentary  on 
Seneca's  treatise  De  Clementia,  full  of  learn- 
ing and  eloquence.  In  his  twenty-fourth 
year,  we  find  him  at  Paris,  preparing  ora- 
tions to  be   delivered   by  the  rector  of  the 


20  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

university,  and  homilies  to  be  recited  to  their 
people  by  the  neighboring  clergy.  During 
the  next  year,  he  gave  to  the  world  his  work 
on  the  sleep  of  the  soul  after  death,  in  which 
he  manifests  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
the  scriptures,  and  with  the  works  of  the 
early  fathers.  Thus,  in  the  morning  of  his 
life,  before  others  have  awaked  from  the 
dreams  of  boyhood,  or  realized  the  responsi- 
bilities of  maturer  life,  he  was  pronounced 
by  Scaliger,  who  was  indisposed  to  give 
praise  to  any,  to  be  the  most  learned  man  in 
Europe.  He  was  only  in  his  twenty -sixth 
year,  when  he  published  the  first  edition  of 
the  Institutes  of  the  Christian  Religion,  with 
an  address  to  the  persecuting  King  of  France, 
which  has  ever  been  esteemed  a  production 
unrivalled  for  classic  purity,  force  of  argu- 
ment, and  persuasive  eloquence.  Designed 
as  a  defence  of  the  calumniated  reformers, 
and  an  exposure  of  the  base  injustice,  ty- 
ranny, and  corruption  of  their  persecutors, 
this  work  became  the  bulwark  of  the  Re- 
formation, and  the  strong-hold  of  its  adhe- 
rents. It  was  made  the  confession  of  faith 
of  a  large  portion  of  the  protestant  world, 
and  the  text  book  of  every  student.  It  was 
recommended  by  a  convocation  held  at 
Oxford,  to  the  general  study  of  the  English 
nation,  and  long  continued  to  be  the  standard 
work  in  theology  in  the  English  universities. 
The  Pope  makes  it  one  of  his  anathematizing 
charges  against  Queen  Elizabeth,  that  the 
impious  mysteries  and  institutes  according  to 


OP    JOHN    CALVIN.  21 

Calvin,  are  received  and  observed  by  herself, 
and  even  enjoined  upon  all  her  subjects  to 
be  obeyed.*  According  to  Schultingius,  the 
English  gave  these  institutes  a  preference  to 
the  Bible.  "The  Bishops,"  he  says,t  "  or- 
dered all  the  ministers,  ut  pcene  ad  verburn 
has  ediscant — that  they  should  learn  them 
almost  to  a  word ; — and,  ut  turn  Anglice  ex- 
actissime  versi  in  singulis  Ecclesiis  a  paro- 
chis  legendi  appendantur, — that  being  most 
exactly  turned  into  English,  they  should  be 
kept  in  all  the  churches  for  public  use ; — 
that  they  were  also  studied  in  both  the  uni- 
versities; that  in  Scotland  the  students  of 
divinity  began  by  reading  these  Institutes; 
that  at  Heidelberg,  Geneva,  Sorbonne,  and 
in  all  the  Calvinistic  universities,  these  Insti- 
tutes were  publicly  taught  by  the  professors; 
that  in  Holland,  ministers,  civilians,  and  the 
common  people,  studied  this  work  with  great 
diligence — even  the  coachman  and  the  sailor 
nocturna  versat  manu  versatque  diurna; 
that  esteeming  it  as  a  pearl  of  great  price, 
they  had  it  bound  and  gilt  in  the  most  ele- 
gant manner ;  and  that  it  was  appealed  to 
as  a  standard  on  all  theological  questions." 
According  to  this  writer  and  the  Cardinal 
Legate  of  the  Pope,  these  Institutes  were 
more  dangerous  to  the  cause  of  the  papacy 
than  all  the  other  writings  of  the  Lutherans. 
As  an  author,  Calvin's  fame  will  go  on 
brightening  more  and  more.    The  Latin  lan- 

*  Burnet's  Hist,  of  the  Reformation,  vol.  2,  p.  347. 
t  Waterman's  Life,  p.  137. 


22  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

guage  was  in  his  day  the  language  of  the 
learned,  and  of  books.  But  "  what  Latin  ?" 
asks  Monsieur  Villers.  "  A  jargon  bearing 
all  the  blemishes  of  eleven  centuries  of  cor- 
ruption and  bad  taste."*  And  yet  the  French 
Encyclopedists  testify  that  "  Calvin  wrote  in 
Latin  as  well  as  is  possible  in  a  dead  lan- 
guage;"! and  an  Episcopalian  of  Oxford  in 
1839  has  said,  that  "for  majesty,  when  the 
subject  required  it,  for  purity,  and  in  short, 
every  quality  of  a  perfect  style,  it  would  not 
suffer  by  a  comparison  with  that  of  Caesar, 
Livy  or  Tacitus. "J 

The  modern  idioms  also  were  at  that  time 
in  the  same  uncultivated  rude  state  in  which 
long  want  of  use  had  plunged  them.  Now 
what  Luther  did  for  the  German,  Calvin 
accomplished  for  the  French  language;  he 
emancipated,  he  renovated,  nay,  he  created 
it.  The  French  of  Calvin  became  eventually 
the  French  of  Protestant  France,  and  is  still 
admired  for  its  purity  by  the  most  skilful 
critics.  § 

Of  his  Institutes  we  have  already  spoken; 
"  the  most  remarkable  literary  work  to  which 
the  Reformation  gave  birth."  Not  less  val- 
ued was  his  Catechism,  now  too  much  neg- 
lected and  unstudied.  He  published  it  in 
French  and  Latin.     It  was  soon  translated 

*  Villers'  Essay  on  the  Reformation,  p.  238. 
t  Article  Geneva. 

X  Pref.  to  Calvin's  Comment,  on  the  Psalms,  vol.  1,  p.  18. 
§  D'Aubigne,  3,  639,  641.    French  Encvclop.  as  above, 
Taylor's  Biogr.  of  the  age  of  Elizabeth,  2.* p.  17. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  23 

into  the  German,  English,  Dutch,  Scotch, 
Spanish,  Greek,  and  Hebrew  languages;  was 
made  one  of  the  standards  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  the  basis  of  the  early  Catechism  in 
the  Church  of  England,  and  the  model  of  the 
Catechism  published  by  the  Westminster  As- 
sembly of  Divines.* 

The  judgment  of  his  great  opponent,  Ar- 
minius,  upon  Calvin's  merits  as  a  commen- 
tator, has  been  sustained  by  the  verdict  of 
three  centuries,  and  his  present  advancing 
reputation.  Arminius  says,  "  after  the  holy 
scriptures,  I  exhort  the  students  to  read  the 
commentaries  of  Calvin,  for  I  tell  them  that 
he  is  incomparable  in  the  interpretation  of 
scripture,  and  that  his  commentaries  ought 
to  be  held  in  greater  estimation  than  all  that  is 
delivered  to  us  in  the  writings  of  the  ancient 
Christian  fathers,  so  that  in  a  certain  eminent 
spirit  of  prophecy,  I  give  the  pre-eminence 
to  him  beyond  most  others,  indeed  beyond 
them  all."  t  But  the  labours  of  Calvin  were 
as  multiplied  and  arduous  as  his  achievements 
were  marvellous.  The  Genevan  edition  of 
his  works  amounts  to  twelve  folio  volumes. 
Besides  these,  there  exist  at  Geneva  two 
thousand  of  his  sermons  and  lectures  taken 
down  from  his  mouth  as  he  delivered  them. 
He  was  but  twenty-eight  years  in  the  min- 

*  Waterman,  35.  Waterman's  edition  of  it,  Hartford, 
1815.  Appendix,  Irving's  Confession  of  Faith.  Pref.  p. 
124,  and  NeaPs  Puritans  1.  224. 

t  In  Scott,  497.  See  the  similar  judgment  of  Scali- 
ger  in  Bayle  265,  and  Beza  120,  204. 


24  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

istry  altogether.  He  was  always  poor,  so  as 
not  to  be  able  to  have  many  books.  The 
sufferings  of  his  body  from  headache,  weak- 
ness, and  other  complaints,  were  constant 
and  intense,  so  that  he  was  obliged  to  recline 
on  his  couch  a  part  of  every  day.  It  was 
only  the  remnants  of  his  time,  left  from 
preaching  and  correspondence,  he  devoted 
to  study  and  writing.  And  yet,  every  year 
of  his  life  may  be  chronicled  by  his  various 
works.  In  the  midst  of  convulsions  and  in- 
terruptions of  every  kind,  he  pursued  his 
commentaries  on  the  Bible,  as  if  sitting  in  the 
most  perfect  calm,  and  undisturbed  repose. 
His  labours  were  indeed  incredible  and  be- 
yond all  comparison.  He  allowed  himself 
no  recreation  whatever.  He  preached  and 
wrote  with  headaches  that  would,  says  Beza, 
have  confined  any  other  person  to  bed.  He 
preached  every  day  of  every  other  week ; — 
on  Monday,  Tuesday,  and  Wednesday,  he 
gave  lectures  in  theology ; — on  Thursday, 
he  presided  in  the  meeting  of  the  presbytery ; 
— on  Friday,  he  expounded  the  holy  scrip- 
tures to  the  congregation.  His  correspond- 
ence, commentaries,  and  controversial  wri- 
tings, &c,  would  form  annually,  during  the 
period  of  thirty-one  years,  between  two  and 
three  octavo  volumes;  and  yet  he  never 
reached  the  age  of  fifty-five.  When  laid 
aside  by  disease  from  preaching,  he  dictated 
numberless  letters,  revised  for  the  last  time 
his  Christian  Institutes,  almost  re-wrote  his 
commentary  on  Isaiah,  frequently  observing 


OP    JOHN    CALVIN.  25 

that  "  nothing  was  so  painful  to  him  as  his 
present  idle  life."  And  when  urged  by  his 
friends  to  forbear,  he  would  reply,  "  would 
you  have  my  Lord  to  find  me  idle  when  he 
cometh?" 


SECTION  IV. 

CALVIN  VINDICATED  FROM  THE  CHARGE  OF  AMBITION,  AND  HIS 
TRUE  GREATNESS  AND  WONDERFUL  INFLUENCE  SHOWN. 

Gifted  with  such  powers  of  mind,  and 
stored  with  such  treasures  of  knowledge, 
who  can  question  the  sincerity  of  Calvin's 
adherence  to  the  principles  of  the  Reforma- 
tion? He  has  been  charged,  however,  with 
ambitious  motives,  and  with  aspiring  to  a 
new  popedom.  Shameless  calumny!  With 
the  pathway  to  honour,  emolument  and  fame 
opened  to  him,  did  he  not  choose,  like  Mo- 
ses, "  rather  to  suffer  with  the  people  of  God 
than  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  sea- 
son?" Did  he  not  resign  the  benefices  which 
he  held,  and  which,  by  a  covert  conduct,  he 
might  still  have  retained,  and  throw  himself 
poor  and  unpatronized  among  the  houseless 
wanderers  who  were  every  where  spoken 
against  as  not  worthy  to  live?  Did  he  not 
design  to  spend  his  time  in  retirement  as 
deeming  himself  unfit  to  take  part  in  the 
noble  strife?  Was  he  not  led  to  visit  Ge- 
neva by  the  invisible  hand  of  God,  who  had 
obstructed  his  route  through  Dauphiny  and 
3 


26  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

Savoy  to  Basle  or  Strasburgh,  where  he 
meant  to  retire? — Was  it  not  after  many- 
refusals,  and  the  extremest  urgency  he  con- 
sented to  remain  in  that  city?  And  when 
appointed  professor  of  divinity  by  the  consis- 
tory and  magistrates,  did  he  not  earnestly 
decline  the  office  of  pastor  which  they  also 
insisted  upon  his  undertaking?  When  ban- 
ished from  that  place  did  he  not  again  seek 
retirement,  and  with  manifest  reluctance  re- 
sume the  duties  of  professor  and  of  pastor 
which  Bucer,  Capito,  Hedio  and  the  Senate 
of  Strasburgh  conferred  upon  him?  And 
when  the  whole  city  of  Geneva  entreated 
his  return  among  them,  did  he  not  say  that 
"  the  further  he  advanced  the  more  sensible 
he  was  how  arduous  a  charge  is  that  of 
governing  a  church,  and  that  there  was  no 
place  under  heaven  he  more  dreaded  than 
Geneva."  How  did  he  praise  and  exalt  Me- 
iancthon  and  Luther!*  How  did  he  bear 
with  their  opposition  to  his  views,  and  their 
silence  when  he  wrote  to  them  in  friendship ! 
Did  he  not,  when  he  had  succeeded  in  found- 
ing the  college  at  Geneva,  prefer  Beza  to  the 
presidency,  and  himself  become  a  professor 
under  him?t  Did  he  not  as  late  as  1553,  in 
a  letter  to  the  minister  of  Zurich,  call  Farel 
"the  father  of  the  liberties  of  Geneva  and 
the  father  of  that  church?"  Ambitious!  "a 
most  extraordinary  charge,  says  Beza,  to  be 
brought  against  a  man  who  chose  his  kind 

*  Scott's  Contin.  of  Milner,  vol.  3.  175,  414,  382,  387. 
t  Ibid.  p.  4G6. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  27 

of  life,  and  in  this  state,  in  this  church,  which 
I  might  truly  call  the  very  seat  of  poverty." 
No !  the  love  of  truth  and  of  the  cause  of 
Christ,  was  the  master  passion  of  his  soul. 
He  realized  what  millions  only  profess,  and 
judging  with  the  apostle,  that  if  Christ  died 
for  all,  then  were  all  dead,  and  that  he  thus 
died  that  they,  who  are  made  alive  by  his 
Spirit,  should  not  henceforth  live  unto  them- 
selves, he  consecrated  his  body,  soul  and  spi- 
rit unto  God.  "  Since,"  says  he,  "  I  remember 
that  I  am  not  my  own,  nor  at  my  own  dis- 
posal, I  give  myself  up  tied  and  bound,  as  a 
sacrifice  to  God."  When,  therefore,  he  was 
driven  from  Geneva  by  a  blinded  faction, 
amid  the  lamentations  of  his  whole  flock,  he 
could  say,  "  Had  I  been  in  the  service  of 
men,  this  would  have  been  a  poor  reward; 
but  it  is  well — I  have  served  him,  who  never 
fails  to  repay  his  servants  whatever  he  has 
promised."  When  the  people  of  Strasburgh 
consented  for  a  season  to  lend  his  service  to 
the  people  of  Geneva,  they  insisted  on  his 
retaining  the  privileges  of  a  citizen  and  the 
stipend  they  had  assigned  him  while  resident 
among  them.  Was  it  ambition  that  led  Cal- 
vin resolutely  to  decline  the  generous  offer? 
Was  it  ambition  which  led  him  to  settle  at 
Geneva  where  his  stipend,  which  was  one 
hundred  crowns  a  year,  barely  supported  his 
existence,  and  which  nevertheless  he  perti- 
naciously refused  to  have  increased?  Did  he 
not  for  years  abstain  from  all  animal  food  at 
dinner,  rarely  eating  any  thing  after  break- 


28  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

fast  till  his  stated  hour  for  supper — and  was 
not  the  whole  amount  of  his  remaining  pro- 
perty, including  his  library  which  sold  high, 
less  than  three  hundred  crowns?  Let  the 
infidel  Bayle,  who  was  struck  with  astonish- 
ment by  these  facts,  put  to  silence  the  igno- 
rance of  foolish  men.* 

The  charge  of  ambition  is  founded  upon 
the  innate  and  surpassing  greatness  of  Cal- 
vin. An  exile  from  his  country,  without 
money,  without  friends,  he  raised  himself,  by 
merit  alone,  to  a  dominion  over  the  minds  of 
men.  His  throne  was  in  the  hearts  of  those 
who  knew  him ;  his  sceptre,  truth ;  his 
laws,  the  silent  influence  of  principle.  Con- 
sider the  difficulties  which  he  encountered  at 
Geneva.  When  he  arrived  in  that  place,  in 
1536,  the  city  had  neither  religious  nor  poli- 
tical organization.  Calvin  undertook  the  task 
of  giving  it  both.t  But  in  order  to  do  so,  he 
had  first  to  cleanse  the  Augean  stable,to  which 
the  demoralized  condition  of  Geneva  might 
be  well  compared.  The  long  reign  of  igno- 
rance and  superstition,  the  extreme  corrup- 
tion of  the  romish  clergy,  the  relaxation  of 
manners  consequent  upon  intestine  feuds  and 
open  war ;  the  licentiousness,  anarchy,  and 
insubordination,  resulting  from  the  first  ex- 
cesses of  unrestrained  freedom,  the  disorders 
occasioned  by  party  spirit  and  factious  dema- 
gogues, and  the  secret  attachment  of  many 

*  Bayle's  Diet.— art.  Calvin.     BB.  and  Scott,  489. 
t  Dr.  Taylor's  Biography  of  the  Age  of  Elizabeth,  vol. 
2.  p.  24. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  29 

to  the  discarded  system  of  popery — these 
were  causes  sufficient  to  lead  to  the  unparal- 
leled dissoluteness  of  a  city,  where  great 
numbers  of  houses  of  ill  fame  were  recog- 
nised and  licensed  by  the  magistrates,  with  a 
regular  female  superior,  who  bore  the  name 
of  Reine  du  Bordel.  Calvin  proved  himself 
to  be  not  only  a  theologian  of  the  highest 
order,  but  also  a  politician  of  astonishing 
sagacity.  Morals  became  pure.  The  laws 
of  the  state  were  revised  and  thoroughly 
changed.  The  ecclesiastical  tribunals  were 
made  independent  of  the  civil,  and  a  system 
of  the  strictest  discipline  established.  The 
sect  of  the  libertines  was  overthrown.  The 
most  powerful  factions  were  dispersed.  The 
enemies  of  truth  and  purity,  though  often 
triumphant,  and  always  violent,  were  made 
to  lick  the  dust,  so  that  the  wickedness  of  the 
wicked  came  to  an  end,  and  righteousness 
prevailed.  The  effects  of  Calvin's  influence, 
says  a  recent  and  prejudiced  historian,  "after 
the  lapse  of  ages,  are  still  visible  in  the  in- 
dustry and  intellectual  tone  of  Geneva."* 
From  having  been  a  small  and  unimportant 
town,  Geneva  became  the  focus  of  light,  the 
centre  of  attraction,  and  the  source  of  incal- 
culable influence  upon  the  destinies  of  Eu- 
rope and  the  world.  Calvin's  seminary  sup- 
plied teachers  and  ministers  to  most  of  the 
reformed  states  of  Europe.  Geneva  was 
honoured  with  the  title  of  the  mother  of  pro- 

*  Hist,  of  Switzerland.    Lond.,  1832 ;  p,  227- 


30  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

testaritism.  Lodgings  could  with  difficulty 
be  found  for  the  multitude  of  students  that 
came  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  the  man  whom  Me- 
lancthon  called  "the  divine."  It  was  to  this 
"metropolis  of  presbyterianism"  all  the  pro- 
scribed exiles  who  were  driven  from  other 
countries  by  the  intolerance  of  popery,  "came 
to  get  intoxicated  with  presbytery  and  repub- 
licanism," to  carry  back  with  them  those 
seeds  which  have  sprung  up  in  the  republic 
of  Holland,  the  commonwealth  of  England, 
the  glorious  revolution  of  1688,  and  our  own 
American  confederation. 

Would  you  see  the  amazing  power  and 
influence  of  Calvin,  read  the  history  of  his 
triumph  over  Bolsec,  one  of  those  hydras  of 
faction  that  successively  shot  up  their  re  ve- 
getating heads  in  Geneva.*  Behold  Troillet, 
another  of  his  enemies,  when  about  to  die, 
sending  for  Calvin  that  he  might  confess  his 
faults,  declaring  that  he  could  not  die  in 
peace  without  obtaining  his  forgiveness. 
Behold  him  at  Berne,  debating  against  Cas- 
talio  and  others  with  such  power  that  his 
opponents  were  henceforth  excluded  from 
that  Canton.  Thus,  like  another  Hercules, 
armed  with  the  simple  club  of  God's  holy 
word,  did  he  destroy  the  numerous  monsters 
who  threatened  to  overthrow  the  truth  as  it 
is  in  Jesus. 

How  wonderful  was  the  influence,  under 
God,   of  this   single   man !     The   reformed 

*  Scott  ibid.  404,  and  Waterman  70. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  31 

churches  in  France  adopted  his  confession  of 
faith,  and  were  modeled  after  the  ecclesias- 
tical order  of  Geneva.  To  him  England  is 
indebted  for  her  articles, for  a  purified  liturgy, 
and  for  all  her  psalmody.*  To  him  Scotland 
owes  her  Knox,  her  Buchanan,  and  her  Mel- 
ville, her  ecclesiastical  system,  and  all  that 
has  made  her  proudly  eminent  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  To  him,  Northern 
Ireland  is  indebted  for  the  industry,  manu- 
factures, education,  religion,  and  noble  spirit 
of  independence  and  freedom  which  she  re- 
ceived from  her  first  settlers,  the  followers  of 
Calvin.t  To  his  letters,  dedications,  and  ex- 
hortations every  nation  of  any  eminence  in 
his  day,  was  accustomed  to  pay  profound 
respect.  These  writings  had  a  salutary  in- 
fluence even  upon  the  romish  church.  Her 
shame  was  excited,  abuses  were  abandoned, 
discipline  enforced,  and  the  necessity  of  a 
reformation  confessed.  Nor  was  this  influ- 
ence merely  ecclesiastical  or  political.  The 
increase  of  his  own  church  was,  we  are  told, 
wonderful,  and  he  could  say,  even  during  his 
life,  "I  have  numberless  spiritual  children 
throughout  the  world."  His  contemporane- 
ous reputation  was  even  greater  than  his 
posthumous  fame,  because  all  parties  united 
in  rendering  him  honour.  Many  romanists, 
says  Bayle,  "would  do  him  justice  if  they 

*  Sibson  in  Beza's  Life,  Am.  ed.;  p.  Ill,  112. 
t  Waterman,  p.  34.    Scott  ibid.  370.     Beza's  Life,  p. 
101. 


32  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

durst."  Scaliger  said  he  was  "the  greatest 
wit  the  world  had  seen  since  the  Apostles," 
while  the  romish  bishop  of  Valence  called 
him  "the  greatest  divine  in  the  world."*  The 
romanists  too  have  been  forced  to  acknow- 
ledge the  falsity  of  their  infamous  calumnies 
published  against  his  morals.t  Such  was 
the  terror  he  had  inspired  in  this  great  apos- 
tasy, that  when  a  false  report  of  his  death 
was  circulated  they  decreed  a  public  proces- 
sion, and  returned  thanks  to  God  in  their 
churches  for  his  death 4  Every  pious,  emi- 
nent, and  learned  reformer  was  his  friend. 
It  was  the  power  of  his  reputation,  proclaim- 
ing abroad  their  own  condemnation,  that  led 
the  General  Assembly  of  Geneva  to  adopt  a 
decree  for  his  return, — to  acknowledge  the 
great  injury  they  had  done  him,  and  implore 
forgiveness  of  Almighty  God, — to  send  an 
honourable  deputation  to  him  to  persuade  him 
to  accept — to  go  forth  in  throngs  to  welcome 
his  return — and  to  allow  him  a  secretary  at 
the  public  expense.  In  short,  it  would  be 
no  difficult  matter,  as  has  been  said,  to  prove, 
that  there  is  not  a  parallel  instance  upon 
record,  of  any  single  individual  being  equally 
and  so  unequivocally  venerated,  for  the  union 
of  wisdom  and  piety,  both  in  England,  and 
by  a  large  body  of  the  foreign  churches,  as 
John  Calvin. 

*  Bayle's  Diet.    Fol.  2.  p.  268 ;  note  X. 
t  Ibid,  p.  265,  and  note  2. 
t  Waterman,  p.  135. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  33 


SECTION  V. 

CALVIN   VINDICATED     FROM     THE    CHARGE    OF    ILLIBERALITY, 
INTOLERANCE,    AND    PERSECUTION. 

But  we  will  pass  on  to  another  view  of 
Calvin's  character.  A  truly  great  mind, 
conscious  of  its  own  resources,  and  more 
fully  sensible  than  others  of  the  difficulties 
surrounding  every  subject  of  human  specu- 
lation, is  always  calm  and  tempered  with 
moderation,  equally  free  from  bigotry  and 
indifference.  It  has  therefore  been  attempted 
to  deprive  Calvin  of  his  glory,  by  the  alle- 
gation that  he  was  illiberal,  extravagant,  and 
intolerant, — a  furious  bigot  and  extreme  ul- 
traist, — and  the  most  heartless  of  persecutors. 
Such  charges,  in  such  an  age  and  country  as 
this,  are,  it  is  well  known,  the  most  offensive, 
and  the  most  sure  to  cover  with  obloquy,  the 
man,  and  the  cause  with  which  he  is  iden- 
tified. But  the  very  reverse  we  affirm  to  be 
the  truth  in  the  case.  Calvin  was  liberal  in 
his  views,  moderate  in  his  spirit,  and  tolerant 
in  his  disposition. 

Who  had  endured  greater  calumny,  re- 
proach, and  hatred,  at  the  hands  of  the  ro- 
manists,  than  Calvin?  and  yet  he  allowed 
the  validity  of  romish  baptism,  and  the 
claims  of  Rome  to  the  character  of  a  church, 
not  merely  as  comprising  many  of  God's  elect 
children,  but  as  having  athe  remains  of  a 
4 


34  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

church  continuing  with  them."*  Against 
whom  did  Luther  and  his  coadjutors  utter 
severer  language,  than  against  Calvin  in  re- 
ference to  the  sacramentarian  controversy  ? 
And  whom  did  Calvin  more  delight  to  honor 
than  Luther  ?  How  did  he  study  to  cover 
the  coals  of  this  pernicious  discord,  and  if 
possible,  entirely  to  quench  them ?  "I  wish 
you,"  he  says,  writing  to  Bullinger  and  the 
other  pastors  of  Zurich,  against  whom  Luther 
had  used  an  inexcusable  wantonness  of  lan- 
guage, reproach,  and  anathema,  "  I  wish  you 
to  recall  these  things  to  your  mind :  how 
great  a  man  Luther  is,  and  with  how  great 
gifts  he  excels ;  also  with  what  fortitude  and 
constancy  of  mind,  with  what  efficacy  of 
learning,  he  hath  hitherto  laboured  and 
watched  to  destroy  the  kingdom  of  anti- 
christ, and  to  propagate,  at  the  same  time, 
the  doctrine  of  salvation.  I  often  say,  if  he 
should  call  me  a  devil,  I  hold  him  in  such 
honour,  that  I  would  acknowledge  him  an 
eminent  servant  of  God."  And  does  not  the 
whole  protestant  world  now,  including  the 
Lutheran  church  itself,  acknowledge  that  the 
doctrine  of  Calvin  on  the  Lord's  Supper  is 
true,  scriptural,  and  catholic,  and  that  Lu- 
ther's was  as  certainly  extravagant  and 
wrong  ? 

In  how  many  ways  did  he   endeavour 

*  "  However  broken  and  deformed  it  may  be,  a  church 
of  some  sort  exists,"  and  in  proof  of  this,  he  quotes  2 
Thess.  ii.  4.  See  his  letters  to  Socinus  in  1549,  and 
Scott  ibid.  400. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  35 

to  preserve  the  peace  and  harmony  of  the 
churches;  to  lead  to  compromise  on  matters 
of  order  and  discipline;  to  encourage  sub- 
mission to  ceremonies  and  forms  which  were 
in  themselves  "fooleries,"  rather  than  pro- 
duce rupture  and  give  occasion  to  the  enemy 
to  blaspheme;  to  prevent  schism,  disunion, 
and  alienation,  and  to  bind  together  with  the 
cords  of  love  the  whole  brotherhood  of  the 
reformed  churches!  "Keep  your  smaller 
differences,"  says  he,  addressing  the  Luthe- 
ran churches,  "let  us  have  no  discord  on 
that  account;  but  let  us  march  in  one  solid 
column,  under  the  banners  of  the  captain  of 
our  salvation,  and  with  undivided  counsels 
pour  the  legions  of  the  cross  upon  the  terri- 
tories of  darkness  and  of  death."  "  I  should 
not  hesitate  to  cross  ten  seas,  if  by  this  means 
holy  communion  might  prevail  among  the 
members  of  Christ." 

Nothing  can  be  more  liberal  than  his 
views  as  to  the  character  of  other  churches. 
"Let  the  ministers,"  he  says,*  "therefore, 
by  whom  God  permits  the  church  to  be 
governed,  be  what  they  may,  if  the  signs  of 
the  true  church  are  perceived,  it  will  be  bet- 
ter not  to  separate  from  their  communion. 
Nor  is  it  an  objection,  that  some  impure  doc- 
trines are  there  delivered;  for  there  is  scarce 
any  church  which  retains  none  of  the  remains 
of  ignorance.  It  is  sufficient  for  us,  that  the 
doctrine,  on  which  the  church  of  Christ  is 

*  Letter  to  Farel  from  Strasburgh,  1538,  in  Waterman, 
p.  249,  250. 


36  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

founded,  shouid  hold  its  place  and  influence." 
Hence  has  it  happened  that  the  most  absurd 
attempts  have  been  made,  even  in  our  own 
day,  to  represent  Calvin  as  the  friend  and 
defender  of  prelacy  which  he  spent  his  life 
in  opposing — that  liberality  which  made  him 
willing  to  bear,  for  a  time,  with  the  "  tolera- 
ble fooleries"  of  the  ritual  of  the  English 
church,  being  most  ungenerously  and  falsely 
interpreted  into  a  warm  and  hearty  approval 
of  its  unscriptural  forms  which  Calvin  openly 
and  constantly  condemned.* 

Equally  liberal  and  moderate  was  Calvin 
in  his  doctrinal  tenets.  He  steered  the  safe 
and  middle  course  between  antinomianism 
and  arminianism — and  between  fatalism  and 
latitudinarianism.  No  one  has  ever  been 
more  belied.  Garbled  extracts  have  been 
made  to  give  expression  to  views  which  their 
context  was  designed  to  overthrow.  Doc- 
trines have  been  fathered  upon  Calvin  which 
had  existed  in  the  church  from  the  Apostles' 
days,  and  in  every  age.  And  erroneous  opin- 
ions both  doctrinal  and  practical,  have  been 
attributed  to  him  which  he  spent  his  life  in 
opposing,  and  of  which  no  confutation  could 
be  found  more  triumphant  than  what  is  given 
in  his  own  works.  But  while  these  are 
unknown  or  unread,  youthful  bigots,  and 
learned  fools,  expose  their  shame  by  retailing 

*  See  Calvin's  views  on  the  subject  of  Episcopacy, 
fully  vindicated  and  established,  by  Dr.  Miller,  in  hia 
recent  letters  to  Bishop  Ives,  and  also  in  his  work  on  the 
Christian  Ministry,  2d  ed.  8vo. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  37 

and  perpetuating  stereotyped  abuse.  It  were 
enough  to  repel  all  such  criminations  by  the 
fact  that  for  every  doctrine  Calvin  appeals  to 
the  Bible — that  he  exalts  the  Bible  above 
every  human  authority,  including  his  own — 
that  he  claims  for  all  men  liberty  of  conscience 
and  of  judgment — and  leaves  them  to  search 
the  Scriptures  that  they  may  thus  try  his  doc- 
trines whether  they  be  of  God. 

In  particular,  the  doctrines  of  predestina- 
tion, decrees,  and  divine  sovereignty,  were 
not  peculiar  to  Calvin,  but  were  common  to 
him  with  the  greatest  divines  of  all  ages,  and 
with  all  the  reformers.  He  was,  too,  a  sub- 
and  not  a  supra-lapsarian.  He  does  not  re- 
present God  as  arbitrary.  He  utterly  repudi- 
ates, and  constantly  opposes,  fatalism.*  He 
always  inculcates  the  duty  and  necessity  of 
using  means;  condemning  the  confounding 
of  "necessity  with  compulsion,"  and  reject- 
ing the  supposition  as  absurd,  that  "  man's 
being  actuated  by  God  is  incompatible  with 
his  being  at  the  same  time  active  himself't 
He  teaches  that  these  means  of  grace,  such 
as  exhortations,  precepts,  and  reproofs,  are 
not  confined  to  those  who  are  already  pious, 
but  are  God's  means  of  awakening  the  care- 
less, converting  the  sinner,  and  leaving  the 
impenitent  without  excuse.  He  teaches, 
therefore,  that  sinners  are  constantly  to  be 
urged  to  attendance  upon  God's  ordinances, 
and  to  the  diligent  and  prayerful  use  of  all 
the  means  by  which  they  may  be  convinced, 

*  Institutes,  B.  1.,  ch.  xvi.  §  8,  9. 

t  Ibid.  B.  II.,  ch.  iii.  §  5,  and  B.  I.  ch.  xviii.  §  2. 


38  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

converted,  and  saved.*  He  strenuously  up- 
holds the  free  agency  and  responsibility  of 
man.t  He  rejects  the  doctrine  of  reproba- 
tion, as  it  is  vulgarly  believed,  since  he  attri- 
butes the  final  condemnation  of  the  wicked  to 
themselves,  and  not  to  any  arbitrary  decree 
of  God.i 

While  Calvin  held  firmly  to  the  great  fun- 
damental doctrine  of  imputation,  and  to  the 
doctrine  of  a  limited  atonement,  he  neverthe- 
less rejected  all  such  views  of  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ  as  would  make  him  to  have  suffered 
just  so  much  for  each  one  that  was  to  be 
saved  by  him,  so  that  if  more  or  fewer  had 
been  appointed  unto  salvation,  he  must  have 
shed  accordingly  more  or  fewer  drops  of  his 

*  Instit.  B.  II.  ch.  v.  §  1,  4,  5,  &c. 

+  See  numerous  extracts  in  proof  in  Scott's  Contin.  of 
Milner,  vol.  ii.  pp.  508,  521,  525,  379,  385,  405. 

t  Instit.,  B.  III.,  ch.  xxiv.,  is  entitled  "  Election  Con- 
firmed (i.  e.,  made  surely  known  to  us.  Scott  ibid.  p. 
577)  by  the  divine  calling,  the  just  destruction  to  which 
the  reprobate  are  destined,  procured  by  themselves."  In 
the  epistle  of  the  pastors  of  Geneva,  (Calv.  Epist.  p.  63- 
65,  in  Scott  406,)  we  find  reprobation  most  offensively 
spoken  of  as  proceeding  "  from  the  bare  will  and  pleasure 
of  God" — nudo  Dei  placito — when  no  such  thing  as  we 
should  understand  by  the  words  is  meant.  This  appears 
from  what  presently  follows  :  "  It  is  beyond  controversy, 
that  the  perdition  of  men  is  to  be  ascribed  to  their  own 
wickedness;"  and  that  the  punishments  which  God  inflicts 
on  them  are  *'  deserved."  It  would  seem  that  all  which 
they  mean,  and  which  Calvin  generally,  at  least,  means 
by  such  obnoxious  language,  is,  that  among  a  fallen  and 
guilty  race,  God,  according  to  his  sovereign  pleasure, 
chooses  whom  he  will  to  bring  to  salvation,  and  whom 
(according  to  the  title  of  Calvin's  work  on  Predestination) 
he  will  "leave  in  their  ruin."  This  appears  to  be  the 
constant  meaning  of  Calvin,  in  the  work  which  he  now 
published  on  these  subjects. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  39 

precious  blood,  and  suffered  more  or  less 
severe  dying  pangs.  Calvin  on  the  contrary, 
recognized  in  the  death  of  Christ,  a  sacrifice 
adequate  to  the  sins  of  the  whole  world,  and 
which  made  provision  for  all  whom  it  should 
please  the  Father  to  enable  and  dispose  to 
avail  themselves  of  it.* 

He  therefore  fully  and  frequently  proclaims 
the  universality  of  the  gospel  promises,  and 
the  duty  of  all  to  receive  and  embrace  them.t 
While  he  teaches  that  original  sin  is  natural, 
he  denies  that  it  originated  from  nature. 
"  We  deny,"  says  he,  "  that  it  proceeded 
from  nature,  to  signify  that  it  is  rather  an 
adventitious  quality  or  accident,  than  a  sub- 
stantial property,  originally  innate,  yet  we  call 
it  natural,  that  no  one  may  suppose  it  to  be 
contracted  by  every  individual  from  corrupt 
habit,  whereas  it  prevails  over  all  by  heredi- 
tary right."   "  No  other  explanation  therefore 

*  On  Romans  v.  18, — "The  free  gift  came  on  all  men 
to  justification  of  life,"  he  remarks,  "The  apostle  makes 
it  a  grace  or  favour  common  to  all,  because  it  is  proposed 
(or  set  forth)  to  all;  not  because  it  is  actually  extended  to 
(conferred  on)  all.  For,  though  Christ  suffered  for  the 
sins  of  the  whole  world,  and  is  offered  by  the  mercy  of 
God  to  all  indifferently,  (without  exception  or  distinction,) 
yet  all  do  not  embrace  him.'1  On  1  John  ii.  2,  he  says : 
"  Christ  suffered  sufficiently  for  the  whole  world,  but  effi- 
caciously only  for  the  elect."  And  finally,  as  early  as  the 
year  1535,  in  a  preface  to  the  New  Testament  in  French, 
he  says :  "  At  the  appointed  time  the  Messiah  came,  and 
amply  performed  whatever  was  necessary  for  the  redemp- 
tion of  all.  The  benefit  was  not  confined  to  Israel  nlone  : 
it  was  rather  to  be  extended  to  the  whole  human  race; 
because  by  Christ  alone  the  whole  human  race  was  to  be 
reconciled  to  God." 

t  Instit.  B.  III.  ch.  iii.,  §  21,  and  ch.  xxii ;  §  10,  and 
ch.  xxiv.  §  G,  8,  16,  17,  and  Scott,  p.  597. 


40  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

can  be  given  of  our  being  said  to  be  dead  in 
Adam,  than  that  his  transgression  not  only- 
procured  misery  and  ruin  for  himself,  but 
also  precipitated  our  nature  into  similar  de- 
struction, and  that  not  by  his  personal  guilt 
as  an  individual,  which  pertains  not  to  us, 
but  because  he  infected  all  his  descendants 
with  the  corruption  into  which  he  had  fallen." 
And  again — "  We  are,  on  account  of  this  very 
corruption,  considered  as  convicted  and  justly 
condemned  in  the  sight  of  God,  to  whom 
nothing  is  acceptable  but  righteousness,  inno- 
cence, and  purity.  And  this  liability  to  pun- 
ishment arises  not  from  the  delinquency  of 
another,  for  when  it  is  said  that  the  sin  of 
Adam  renders  us  obnoxious  to  the  divine 
judgment,  it  is  not  to  be  understood  as  if  we, 
though  innocent,  were  undeservedly  loaded 
with  the  guilt  of  his  sin,  but  because  we  are 
all  subject  to  a  curse,  in  consequence  of  his 
transgression,  he  is  therefore  said  to  have 
involved  us  in  guilt.  Nevertheless  we  de- 
rive from  him  not  only  the  punishment,  but 
also  the  pollution  to  which  the  punishment 
is  justly  due."* 

He  allows  that  even  as  fallen,  "  the  soul  of 
man  is  irradiated  with  a  beam  of  divine  light, 
so  that  it  is  never  wholly  destitute  of  some 
little  flame  or  at  least  spark  of  it,"  though 
"  it  cannot  comprehend  God  by  that  illumi- 
nation," the  remaining  image  of  God  being 
but  the  ruin  of  the  original,  and  "  confused, 
mutilated,  and  defiled."! 

*  Instit.  B.  II.  ch.  i.  §  10,  11,  and  B.  II.,  ch.  1,  §  6,  8. 
t  Ibid.  B.  I.,  ch.  xv.,  §  4  &  C ;  B.  II.,  ch.  ii.,  §  12,  and 
B.  II.,  ch,  1,  §  13,  19,  22,  24,  and  ch.  iii.,  §  4. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  41 

His  doctrines,  therefore,  as  he  frequently 
shows,  cut  up  by  the  roots  all  presumption, 
prevent  despair,  encourage  hope,  and  in  an 
eminent  degree  enforce  and  cherish  holiness 
both  of  heart  and  life.*  His  doctrines  also 
make  special  provision  for  the  salvation  of 
all  elect  children  whether  baptized  or  unbap- 
tized,  whether  christian  or  pagan;  nor  did  he 
ever  discountenance  the  idea  that  all  children 
dying  in  infancy  may  be  regarded  as  among 
the  elect,  and  therefore  as  assuredly  saved.t 
He  also  approved  the  baptism  of  the  infants 
of  all  baptized  parents  whether  communi- 
cants or  not,  recognizing  the  covenant  right 
of  such  children  to  the  seal  of  those  privi- 
leges to  which  they  have  a  natural  and  ne- 
cessary claim. 

I  may  also  mention,  as  interesting  at  this 
time,  that  Calvin  approved  of  a  public  form 
for  the  introduction  of  professors  into  the 
Christian  church.  J 

Now  let  these  views  of  Calvin  be  com- 

*  Ibid.  B.  III.,  ch.  xxiv.  §  4,  and  ch.  xiv.  §  17—21. 

t  In  his  Instit.  B.  IV.,  ch.  xvi.,  where  he  argues  against 
those  who  affirmed  that  regeneration  cannot  take  place  in 
early  infancy — •"  God,"  says  he,  "  adopts  infants  and 
washes  them  in  the  blood  of  his  Son,"  and  "  they  are  re- 
garded by  Christ  as  among  his  flock."  Again,  (Instit. 
B.  IV.,  ch.  xvi.,  §  31,  p.  461,  see  also  p.  435,  436,  451,) 
he  says  of  John  iii.  36,  "  Christ  is  not  speaking  of  the 
general  guilt  in  which  all  the  descendants  of  Adam  are 
involved,  but  only  threatening  the  despisers  of  the  gospel 
who  proudly  and  obstinately  reject  the  grace  that  is  offered 
them ;  and  this  has  nothing  to  do  with  infants.  I  like- 
wise oppose  a  contrary  argument ;  all  those  whom  Christ 
blesses  are  exempted  from  the  curse  of  Adam  and  the 
wrath  of  God  ;  and  it  is  known  that  infants  were  blessed 
by  him  ;  it  follows  that  they  are  exempted  from  death." 

t  Ibid.  B.  IV.,  ch.  xix.  §  4,  13. 


42  LIFJE    AND    CHARACTER 

pared  with  those  of  Luther  and  Melancthon 
on  the  subject  of  predestination,  or  with  those 
of  Beza,  his  own  coadjutor ;  or  with  those 
of  the  English  Reformers  and  the  Lambeth 
articles ;  and  will  they  not  be  allowed,  by 
every  impartial  judge,  to  be  at  once  liberal, 
moderate  and  wise.  While  these  doctrines, 
by  which  alone  many  know  Calvin,  were 
not  peculiar  to  him,  it  is  also  true  that  they 
were  not  dwelt  upon  with  any  undue  promi- 
nence, but  in  subordination  to  other  subjects. 
And  when  the  unparalleled  consistency  with 
which  through  his  whole  life  Calvin  con- 
tinued to  maintain  the  same  views,  is  con- 
trasted with  the  variation  of  others,  how 
illustriously  do  they  exhibit  the  superiority 
of  his  intellectual  powers.  Not  that  he  was 
infallible — far  from  it.  He  too  was  human, 
fallible,  and  chargeable  with  error.  In  mak- 
ing assurance  of  salvation  necessary  to  a  true 
faith — in  questioning  the  peculiar  and  per- 
manent sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  day — in  sup- 
posing that  Christ  descended  to  hell,  or  en- 
dured on  the  cross  the  torments  of  hell — 
Calvin  certainly  erred,  and  is  not  by  any  to 
be  believed  or  followed.* 

But  we  proceed  to  remark  that  Calvin  was 
not  intolerant  in  spirit  or  in  practice.  It  is 
true,  that  Servetus  was,  at  his  prosecution, 
brought  to  trial  for  conduct  the  most  criminal 
and  opinions  the  most  horrible,  which  in  the 
face  of  the  laws  and  of  repeated  admonition 
he  continued  to  propagate  with  pestiferous 

*  See  Scott's  Contin.  of  Milner,  vol.  3,  p.  545,  550,  and 
583,  and  Bib.  Repertory,  1831,  p.  421. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  43 

zeal.  But  that  Calvin  did  more  than  this, 
in  the  whole  course  of  his  life,  to  give  oc- 
casion to  the  charges  of  persecuting  intole- 
rance so  loudly  proclaimed  against  him,  we 
positively  deny.  To  affirm,  as  many  do,  that 
he  sought  the  burning  of  Servetus — that  he 
influenced  the  Senate  in  securing  his  death — 
that  he  aided  or  abetted  in  his  execution — 
or  that  he  did  not  use  his  best  endeavours  to 
procure  a  mitigation  of  his  sentence — is  an 
atrocious  calumny  against  the  truth  of  his- 
tory, and  an  act  of  black  persecution  against 
the  memory  of  a  great  and  good  man.  We 
have  already  offered  proof  of  the  liberality 
and  moderation  of  Calvin  even  towards  op- 
ponents. Many  similar  facts  illustrative  of 
his  great  forbearance  might  be  adduced. 
His  benevolence  no  one  can  dispute.  Nor 
can  any  one  question  his  humble  and  unam- 
bitious spirit.  The  earlier  editions  of  his- 
Institutes  contained  also  the  following  elo- 
quent argument  in  favour  of  toleration* 
"  Though  it  may  be  wrong  to  form  friend- 
ship or  intimacy  with  those  who  hold  perni- 
cious opinions,  yet  must  we  contend  against 
them  only  by  exhortation,  by  kindly  instruc- 
tions, by  clemency,  by  mildness,  by  prayers 
to  God,  that  they  may  be  so  changed  as  to 
bear  good  fruits,  and  be  restored  to  the  unity 
of  the  church.  And  not  only  are  erring- 
Christians  to  be  so  treated,  but  even  Turks 
and  Saracens."* 

This,  then,  was  the  natural  spirit,  and  the 
genuine  creed  of  Calvin.     But  it  was  dia- 

*  Dr.  Taylor's  Biography  of  the  Age  of  Elizabeth,  vol. 
2,  p.  46. 


44  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

metrically  opposed  to  the  spirit  and  to  the 
universal  sentiment  of  the  age.  The  Romish 
church  had  diffused  the  notion  that  the  spirit 
of  the  judicial  laws  of  the  Old  Testament 
still  constituted  the  rule  and  standard  of  the 
Christian  church.  Of  necessity,  therefore,  a 
regard  for  the  public  peace,  and  the  preser- 
vation of  the  church  of  Christ  from  infection, 
required  the  punishment  of  heretics  and  blas- 
phemers.* Toleration  of  errorists  was  deem- 
ed sinful,  and  their  destruction  a  Christian 
duty.  Men  were  taught  to  believe  that  tem- 
poral penalties  were  God's  appointed  means 
for  making  men  virtuous  and  religious.  The 
gibbet,  the  stake,  the  cell,  and  various  other 
modes  of  torture,  were  therefore  the  chief 
arguments  employed.  Priests  became  inqui- 
sitors. The  pulpit  was  the  inciter  to  slaugh- 
ter: and  Te  Deums  resounded  through  clois- 
tered walls  in  commemoration  of  the  deaths 
of  infamous  heretics.  Persecution,  in  short, 
was  the  avowed  policy  of  the  church.  Now 
the  Reformers,  be  it  remembered,  were  all 
Romish  theologians,  trained  up  in  the  bosom 
of  the  Roman  church,  and  imbued  with  these 
fatal  sentiments,  which  were  every  where 
applauded.! 

The  liberty  of  the  Reformation,  also,  had 
been  abused  to  the  greatest  licentiousness, 
both  of  opinion  and  of  practice.  Such  here- 
sies in  doctrine,  and  excesses  in  conduct,  were 
all  employed  as  arguments  against  the  Re- 
formers. While,  then,  tolerance  of  error  was 
a  standing  reproach  in  the  mouth  of  Rome, 

*  See  Clarke's  Hist,  of  Intol.,  vol.  1.  p.  xviii.  and  xxi. 
t  Viller  on  the  Reformation,  p.  2G0. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  45 

against  their  cause,  the  reformers,  deluded 
in  their  first  principles — blinded  by  the  uni- 
versal opinion  of  all  parties — and  driven,  in 
self-defence,  to  oppose  themselves  to  all  he- 
resy— continued  to  approve  and  to  practise 
upon  those  views  which  are  now  con- 
demned as  intolerance  and  persecution.  Cal- 
vin, therefore,  was  led  to  think  that  his  pre- 
vious views  would  encourage  heresy,  and 
injure  the  cause  of  the  reform ;  and  for  once, 
he  allowed  his  better  judgment  to  be  warped, 
and  fully  endorsed  the  principle  that  heresy 
must  be  restrained  by  force.  But  still  he 
utterly  disclaimed  all  right  or  power  to  em- 
ploy that  force  on  the  part  of  the  church. 
He  transferred  it  altogether  to  the  civil  au- 
thorities, and  therefore  to  the  hands  of  the 
community,  generally,  by  whom  it  has  been 
ultimately  abolished.  Tried,  therefore,  by 
the  universal  judgment  of  his  age,  Calvin 
was  not  intolerant;  and  when  condemned 
by  the  free  and  liberal  views  of  the  present 
time,  he  meets  his  sentence  in  common  with 
all  men,  whether  civilians  or  theologians,  and 
with  all  the  reformers,  whether  continental 
or  anglican.*  So  that  the  whole  guilt  of  the 
persecuting  tenets  of  the  reformers  must  ul- 
timately rest  upon  that  mother  from  whose 
breasts  these  all  had  drawn  the  milk  of  in- 
tolerance, and  by  whose  nurture  they  had 
been  trained  up  in  the  way  of  persecution. 

*  Scott's  Contin.,  vol.  3,  420,  432,  433,  435,  437,  438, 
D'Aubigne  Hist,  of  Ref.,  vol.  3,  p.  630.  Beza's  Life,  p. 
109,  110,  156,  197. 


46  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

The  romish  church,  therefore,  as  has  been 
truly  said,  is  answerable  for  the  execution  of 
Servetus. 

If,  however,  there  ever  was  a  case  in  which 
the  execution  of  the  penalty  of  death  could 
have  been  properly  inflicted,  it  was  in  that  of 
Servetus.  Never  had  man  so  blasphemed 
his  Maker,  so  outraged  christian  feeling  and 
all  propriety,  so  insulted  the  laws  in  force  for 
his  destruction,  and  so  provoked  the  slum- 
bering arm  of  vengeance  to  fall  upon  him.* 

Servetus  had  been  driven  from  every  at- 
tempted residence  on  account  of  his  unbear- 
able conduct.  He  had  been  tried  and  con- 
demned to  be  burned  to  death  by  the  ro- 
manists  at  Vienna,  from  whose  hands  he 
had  just  escaped  when  he  came  to  Geneva.t 
He  was  well  aware  of  the  intolerant  charac- 
ter of  the  laws  of  the  city  of  Geneva,  en- 
acted against  heretics  by  the  Emperor  Fred- 
erick I.  when  under  imperial  and  romish 
jurisdiction — which  had  been  often  exercised 
before  that  time — and  which  were  still  in 
force. £  Calvin,  regarding  his  sentiments  and 
conduct  with  just  abhorrence,  and  believing 
it  to  be  his  duty,  for  the  reasons  stated,  to 
oppose  them,  gave  him  previous  notice, 
that  if  he  came  to  the  city  of  Geneva,  he 
should  be  under  the  necessity  of  prosecuting 
him.      There    was,  therefore,  no   previous 

*  Beza's  Life,  p.  163,  203.    Philad.  ed. 
t  Scott  ibid.  423,  Beza  ibid.  163. 
t  Scott  ibid.  347,  356,  374,  430,  443.     Beza  ibid.  167, 
180,  and  199. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN. 


47 


malice  in  Calvin  towards  him.  When  Ser- 
vetus  had  come,  and  Calvin  had  brought  his 
character  and  opinions  to  the  view  of  the 
authorities,  his  interference  in  the  matter 
there  ceased.  He  never  visited  the  court, 
except  when  required  to  do  so.  The  Senate, 
instead  of  being  influenced  by  him  in  the  course 
they  pursued,  were,  the  greater  part  of  them, 
at  that  very  time  opposed  to  him.*  The  whole 
matter  was,  at  Servetus'  request,  submitted 
to  the  judgment  of  the  other  cities,  who  unani- 
mously approved  of  his  condemnation,  t 

Servetus,  too,  acknowledged  the  justice  of 
his  own  sentence,  if  guilty  of  the  charges 
made  against  him, — and  which  were  all  sus- 
tained,— and  actually  sought  and  hoped  to 
have  the  same  sentence  inflicted  upon  Cal- 
vin.J  He  therefore  forced  death  upon  him- 
self, and  threw  himself,  as  it  were,  into  the 
burning  fire ;  Calvin  having  exerted  his  ut- 
most influence,  up  to  the  very  last,  to  have 
the  mode  of  execution  altered. 

Now  when  it  is  remembered  that  at  this 
very  time  the  flames  were  consuming  the 
victims  of  romish  persecution,  and  also  those 
of  Cranmer,  who  is  called  a  pattern  of  hu- 
mility— that  Davides  fell  a  victim  to  the  in- 
tolerance of  Socinus§ — that  the  English  re- 
formers applauded  the  execution  of  Servetus 
— that  his  punishment  was  regarded  as  the 

*  Scott  ibid.,  p.  434,  440.     Beza's  Life  ibid.  168,  283. 
+  Scott  ibid.  427,  43G.     Beza's  Life  ibid.  169, 195. 
t  Waterman's  Life  of  Calvin,  p.  103,  105. 
§  Scott,  ibid.  439.    Williams'  Relig.  Liberty,  p.  135. 


48  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

common  cause  of  all  the  churches — and  that 
for  fifty  years  no  writer  criminated  Calvin 
for  his  agency  in  this  matter — may  we  not 
say  to  those  who  now  try  Calvin  by  an  ex 
post  facto  law — let  him  that  is  guiltless 
among  you  cast  the  first  stone  ?  So  much  for 
the  charge  of  intolerance. 


SECTION  VI. 

CALVIN  VINDICATED   FROM    THE   CHARGE   OF    A   WANT   OF    NA- 
TURAL  AFFECTION    AND    FRIENDSHIP. 

Equally  futile  and  untrue  is  another 
charge  made  against  Calvin,  that  he  was 
entirely  destitute  of  tenderness  and  all  natu- 
ral affection,  and  that  no  expression  of  kind- 
ness can  be  found  in  his  writings.  That  his 
intellectual  powers  were  pre-eminent,  and 
held  his  passions,  appetites  and  desires  in 
complete  subjection  to  the  dictates  of  pru- 
dence and  calm  sobriety,  is  unquestionably 
true.  But  that  Calvin  possessed  deep  feeling, 
and  was  susceptible  of  the  strongest  and 
most  tender  emotions,  we  believe  to  be  in- 
controvertibly  certain.  "  I  had  intended/' 
he  says,  on  his  return  to  the  people  of  Gene- 
va, who  had  so  cruelly  treated  him,  "  to  ad- 
dress the  people,  entering  into  a  review  of 
the  past,  and  a  justification  of  myself  and 
my  colleagues ;  but  I  found  them  so  touched 
with  remorse,  so  ready  to  anticipate  me  in 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  49 

the  confession  of  their  faults,  that  I  felt  that 
such  a  proceeding  would  not  only  be  super- 
fluous but  cruel/'  "  It  was  beautiful,"  says 
Beza,  "  to  observe  the  union  of  these  three 
great  men — i.  e.,  Calvin,  Farel  and  Viret — 
in  the  service  of  their  common  Master." 
When  Farel  wished  to  visit  him  in  his  last 
illness,  Calvin  wrote  him,  saying — "  Fare- 
well, my  best  and  most  worthy  brother. 
Since  God  has  determined  that  you  should 
survive  me  in  this  world,  live  mindful  of  our 
union,  which  has  been  so  useful  to  the  church 
of  God,  and  the  fruits  of  which  await  us  in 
heaven.  Do  not  fatigue  yourself  on  my 
account.  I  draw  my  breath  with  difficulty, 
and  am  expecting  continually  that  my  breath 
will  fail.  It  is  sufficient  that  I  live  and  die 
in  Christ,  who  is  gain  to  his  servants  in  life 
and  in  death.  Again,  farewell  with  the 
brethren." 

After  the  death  of  his  friend  Courault,  he 
says,  in  a  letter  to  Farel,  "I  am  so  over- 
whelmed, that  I  put  no  limits  to  my  sorrow. 
My  daily  occupations  have  no  power  to  re- 
tain my  mind  from  recurring  to  the  event, 
and  revolving  constantly  the  impressive 
thought.  The  distressing  impulses  of  the 
day  are  followed  by  the  more  torturing  an- 
guish of  the  night.  I  am  not  only  troubled 
with  dreams,  to  which  I  am  inured  by  habit, 
but  I  am  greatly  enfeebled  by  the  restless 
watchings  which  are  extremely  injurious  to 
my  health." 

On  the  death  of  Bucer,  he  thus  writes: — 
5 


50  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

"  I  feel  my  heart  to  be  almost  torn  asunder, 
when  I  reflect  on  the  very  great  loss  which 
the  church  has  sustained  in  the  death  of  Bu- 
cer,  and  on  the  advantages  that  England 
would  have  derived  from  his  labours,  had 
he  been  spared  to  assist  in  carrying  on  the 
reformation  in  that  kingdom." 

Look,  also,  at  his  letters  of  consolation,  ad- 
dressed to  those  confessors  for  the  truth  who 
had  been  unable  to  make  their  escape  from 
persecution.* 

On  the  death  of  his  son,  he  wrote  to  Viret, 
saying,  "  The  Lord  hath  certainly  inflicted  a 
heavy  and  severe  wound  on  us,  by  the  death 
of  our  little  son ;  but  He  is  our  father,  and 
knows  what  is  expedient  for  his  children." 
And  when  his  wife  was  taken  from  him,  we 
behold  in  Calvin  all  the  tenderness  of  a  most 
sensitive  and  affectionate  heart.  Writing  to 
Farel,  to  whom  he  gives  a  detail  of  her  ill- 
ness, he  says :  "  The  report  of  the  death  of 
my  wife  has  doubtless  reached  you  before 
this.  I  use  every  exertion  in  my  power  not 
to  be  entirely  overcome  with  heaviness  of 
heart.  My  friends,  who  are  about  me,  omit 
nothing  that  can  afford  alleviation  to  the  de- 
pression of  my  mind."  Again,  "may  the 
Lord  Jesus  strengthen  you  by  his  Spirit,  and 
me  also  in  this  so  great  calamity,  which 
would  inevitably  have  overpowered  me, 
unless  from  heaven  he  stretched  forth  his 
hand,  whose  office  it  is  to  raise  the  fallen, 

*  Scott's  Contin.  of  Milner,  p.  374. 


OP   JOHN   CALVIN.  51 

to  strengthen  the  weak,  and  to  refresh  the 
weary."  Again  writing  to  Viret,  he  says, 
"although  the  death  of  my  wife  is  a  very 
severe  affliction,  yet  I  repress  as  much  as  I 
am  able,  the  sorrow  of  my  heart.  My  friends 
also  afford  every  anxious  assistance,  yet  with 
all  our  exertions,  we  effect  less,  in  assuaging 
my  grief,  than  I  could  wish;  but  still  the 
consolation  which  I  obtain  I  cannot  express. 
You  know  the  tenderness  of  my  mind,  or 
rather  with  what  effeminacy  I  yield  under 
trials;  so  that  without  the  exercise  of  much 
moderation,  I  could  not  have  supported  the 
pressure  of  my  sorrow.  Certainly  it  is  no 
common  occasion  of  grief.  I  am  deprived 
of  a  most  amiable  partner,  who,  whatever 
might  have  occurred  of  extreme  endurance, 
would  have  been  my  willing  companion,  not 
only  in  exile  and  poverty,  but  even  in  death. 
While  she  lived,  she  was  indeed  the  faithful 
helper  of  my  ministry,  and  on  no  occasion 
did  I  ever  experience  from  her  any  interrup- 
tion. For  your  friendly  consolation,  I  return 
you  my  sincere  thanks.  Farewell,  my  dear 
and  faithful  brother.  May  the  Lord  Jesus 
watch  over  and  direct  you  and  your  wife. 
To  her  and  the  brethren  express  my  best 
salutation." 

Now,  if  these  proofs  of  the  tenderness  of 
Calvin  are  not  sufficient,  let  any  one  read  the 
account  of  his  closing  scenes,  and  he  will 
find  the  most  touching  manifestations  of  an 
affectionate  and  tender  spirit.  As  a  brother, 
friend,  husband,  father,  and  minister,  Calvin 


52  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

displayed  warm,  steady,  and  unshaken  friend- 
ship and  regard. 


SECTION  VII. 

THE    OBLIGATIONS    WHICH    WE    OWE    TO    CALVIN   AS    AMERICAN 
CITIZENS    AND    CHRISTIANS,    ILLUSTRATED. 

Such  was  Calvin,  and  such  the  triumphant 
defence  of  his  character  against  all  assaults, 
which  he  has  left  behind  him  in  his  unspotted 
life,  his  unimpeachable  character,  his  familiar 
epistles,  and  his  everlasting  works.  His  wis- 
dom, learning,  prudence,  and  unapproach- 
able excellencies  as  an  author,  no  one  has 
ever  dared  to  dispute.  The  star  of  his  fame 
has  continued  to  shine  with  ever-increasing 
brilliancy  in  the  intellectual  firmament,  and 
still  guides  many  a  voyager  over  the  dark 
and  uncertain  sea  of  time  to  the  sure  haven 
of  everlasting  blessedness.  Such  is  the  rich 
inheritance  he  left  us,  who  would  desire  to 
be  followers  of  him  as  far  as  he  followed 
Christ.  But  this  is  not  all.  To  him  we  are 
indebted  for  other  treasures,  dearly  prized 
by  every  American  citizen. 

We  look,  for  instance,  to  our  system  of 
common  schools  as  the  great  hope  of  Ameri- 
can freedom,  in  the  intelligence  they  every 
where  diffuse.  Now,  Calvin  was  the  father 
oi  popular  education,  and  the  inventor  of  the 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  53 

system  of  free  schools.  None  of  the  re- 
formers perceived  more  clearly  the  advan- 
tages of  education,  or  laboured  more  ear- 
nestly to  promote  it. 

Next  to  our  common  schools,  we  prize 
our  colleges  and  theological  seminaries  as 
the  nurseries  of  citizens,  statesmen,  and  min- 
isters, capable  of  guarding  the  affairs  of  a 
great  and  free  people.  Now  the  building 
and  complete  endowment  of  the  college  and 
seminary  at  Geneva,  was  among  the  last 
acts  accomplished  by  Calvin — it  having  been 
opened  in  1559,  with  600  students.  "Even 
now,  when  Geneva  has  generally  deserted 
the  standards  of  the  original  reformers,  and 
joined  those  of  Arius  and  Socinus,  her  sons 
rejoice  in  the  great  triumph  achieved  by  the 
wisdom  of  Calvin  over  the  power  of  Napo- 
leon, who,  on  conquering  Geneva,  wanted 
courage  to  make  any  change  in  the  system 
of  education,  which  had  been  planted  more 
than  200  years  before  Bonaparte  was  born, 
by  this  distinguished  friend  of  genuine  Chris- 
tianity, and  a  truly  scriptural  education." 

We  hail  the  birth-day  of  our  country's 
liberty.  We  still  commemorate  the  declara- 
tion of  our  national  independence.  We  glory 
in  a  country  more  rapidly  extending  its  terri- 
tory, its  population,  and  its  riches,  than  any 
other  upon  earth — in  laws  the  most  just  and 
impartial — in  a  government  the  most  equi- 
table, economical  and  free — and  in  the  en- 
joyment of  a  religious  liberty  more  perfect 
and  complete  than  can  be  paralleled  in  the 


54  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

history  of  man.  The  star  spangled  banner 
awakens  the  envy  and  the  admiration  of  the 
world — and  our  glorious  republic  is  the  fairy 
vision  which  excites  the  emulous  desire  of 
imitation  in  the  bosom  of  every  well-wisher 
to  the  advancement  of  society.  But  whence 
came  all  these  ?  "  The  pilgrims  of  Plymouth/' 
says  Bancroft,  "were  Calvinists;  the  best  in- 
fluence in  South  Carolina  came  from  the 
Calvinists  of  France;  William  Perm  was  the 
disciple  of  the  Huguenots;  the  ships  from 
Holland  that  first  brought  colonists  to  Man- 
hattan, were  filled  with  Calvinists.  He  that 
will  not  honour  the  memory  and  respect 
the  influence  of  Calvin,  knows  but  little  of  the 
origin  of  American  liberty."  Yes  !  Calvin 
was  a  thorough-going  republican.  The  In- 
stitutes of  Calvin  carry  with  the  truths  of 
Christianity  the  seeds  of  republicanism  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth.  "  Indeed,"  says  he,*  "  if 
these  three  forms  of  government,  which  are 
stated  by  philosophers,  be  considered  in 
themselves,  I  shall  by  no  means  deny,  that 
either  aristocracy,  or  a  mixture  of  aristo- 
cracy and  democracy,  far  excels  all  others ; 
and  that,  indeed,  not  of  itself,  but  because  it 
very  rarely  happens,  that  kings  regulate 
themselves,  so  that  their  will  is  never  at  va- 
riance with  justice  and  rectitude ;  or  in  the 
next  place,  that  they  are  endued  with  such 
penetration  and  prudence,  as  in  all  cases  to 
discover  what  is  best.  The  vice  or  imper- 
fection of  men,  therefore,  renders  it  safer  and 

*  Inst.  B.  IV.  c.  20.  §  8. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  55 

more  tolerable  for  the  government  to  be  in 
hands  of  many,  that  they  may  afford  each 
other  mutual  assistance  and  admonition,  and 
that  if  any  one  arrogate  to  himself  more  than 
is  right,  the  many  may  act  as  censors,  and 
masters,  to  restrain  his  ambition.  This  has 
always  been  proved  by  experience,  and  the 
Lord  confirmed  it  by  his  authority,  when  he 
established  a  government  of  this  kind  among 
the  people  of  Israel,  with  a  view  to  preserve 
them  in  the#most  desirable  condition,  till  he 
exhibited,  in  David,  a  type  of  Christ.  And 
as  I  readily  acknowledge,  that  no  kind  of 
government  is  more  happy  than  this,  where 
liberty  is  regulated  with  becoming  modera- 
tion, and  properly  established  on  a  durable 
basis,  so  also  I  consider  these  as  the  most 
happy  people,  who  are  permitted  to  enjoy 
such  a  condition;  and  if  they  exert  their 
strenuous  and  constant  efforts  for  its  preser- 
vation, I  admit  that  they  act  in  perfect 
consistence  with  their  duty." 

"  Calvin,"  says  Bishop  Horsley,  "was  un- 
questionably, in  theory,  a  republican;  he 
freely  declares  his  opinion,  that  the  republican 
form,  or  an  aristocracy  reduced  nearly  to  the 
level  of  a  republic,  was  of  all  the  best  calcu- 
lated, in  general,  to  answer  the  ends  of  gov- 
ernment. So  wedded,  indeed,  was  he  to  this 
notion,  that,  in  disregard  of  an  apostolic  in- 
stitution, and  the  example  of  the  primitive 
ages,  he  endeavored  to  fashion  the  govern- 
ment of  all  the  protestant  churches  upon  re- 
publican principles;  and  his  persevering  zeal 


56  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

in  that  attempt,  though  in  this  country, 
through  the  mercy  of  God,  it  failed,  was  fol- 
lowed, upon  the  whole,  with  a  wide  and 
mischievous  success.  But  in  civil  politics, 
though  a  republican  in  theory,  he  was  no 
leveller." 

Geneva,  the  mother  of  modern  republics, 
is  the  monument  of  Calvin's  fame ;  and  as 
Montesquieu  says,  should  celebrate, in  annual 
festival,  the  day  when  Calvin  first  entered 
that  city.  Politically  and  ecclesiastically, 
Calvin  honoured  the  people ;  assumed  their 
intelligence,  virtue,  and  worth ;  and  entrusted 
them  with  the  management  of  affairs.  He 
taught,  also,  the  spiritual  independence  of  the 
church ;  its  entire  separation  from  civil  gov- 
ernment ;  and  the  supreme  and  exclusive 
headship  of  its  only  lawgiver  and  sovereign, 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  These  were  the  grand 
truths  taught  and  illustrated  by  Calvin ;  truths 
which  drew  the  lovers  of  freedom  to  Geneva, 
which  sent  them  away  burning  with  the 
thirst  for  liberty  and  republicanism,  which 
aroused  the  slumbering  people  of  Europe, 
which  convulsed  France,  confederated  the 
states  of  Holland,  revolutionized  England, 
Presbyterianized  Scotland,  colonized  New 
England,  and  founded  this  great  and  growing 
republic* 

*  "He  lived  in  a  day  when  nations  were  shaken  to  their 
centre,  by  the  excitement  of  the  Reformation,  when  the 
fields  of  Holland  and  France  were  wet  with  the  carnage 
of  persecution ;  when  vindictive  monarchs  on  the  one 
side  threatened  all  Protestants  with  outlawry  and  death, 
and  the  Vatican  on  the  other  sent  forth  its  anathemas  and 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  57 

This,  too,  is  an  age  of  missions.  The 
missionary  enterprise  is  the  glory  of  the 
church,  the  regenerator  of  society,  the  pre- 
cursor of  the  millennial  reign  of  peace  and 
happiness,  and  the  hope  of  the  world.  With 
generous  emulation,  all  branches  of  the 
church  catholic  strive  for  the  mastery  in  this 
glorious  achievement,  while  Ichabod  is  writ- 
ten upon  any  denomination  from  whose  bat- 
tlements the  gospel  banner  is  not  unfurled, 
and  whose  laggard  troops  come  not  up  to  the 
help  of  the  Lord,  to  the  help  of  the  Lord 
against  the  mighty.  Now  it  was  Calvin  who 
led  on  this  mighty  enterprise,  and  gave  birth 
to  this  modern  crusade  against  the  powers  of 
darkness.  He  alone,  so  far  as  we  know,  of 
all  the  reformers,  while  battling  with  sur- 
rounding foes,  remembered  the  waste  places 

its  cry  for  blood.  In  that  day,  it  is  too  true,  the  influ- 
ence of  an  ancient,  long. established,  hardly  disputed  error, 
the  constant  danger  of  his  position,  the  intensest  desire 
to  secure  union  among  the  antagonists  of  popery,  the 
engrossing  consciousness  that  this  struggle  was  for  the 
emancipation  of  the  Christian  world,  induced  the  great 
reformer  to  defend  the  use  of  the  sword  for  the  extirpation 
of  error.  Reprobating  and  lamenting  his  adhesion  to  the 
cruel  doctrine,  which  all  Christendom  had  for  centuries 
implicitly  received,  we  may,  as  republicans,  remember 
that  Calvin  was  not  only  the  founder  of  a  sect,  but  fore- 
most  among  the  most  efficient  of  modern  republican  legis- 
lators. More  truly  benevolent  to  the  human  race  than 
Solon,  more  self-denying  than  Lycurgus,  the  genius  of 
Calvin  infused  enduring  elements  into  the  institutions  of 
Geneva,  and  made  it  for  the  modern  world  the  impregna- 
ble fortress  of  popular  liberty,  the  fertile  seed-plot  of  de- 
mocracy.— From  an  Address  to  the  public,  by  G.  Ban- 
croft,  Esq. 

6 


58  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

of  the  earth  which  are  full  of  the  habitations 
of  horrid  cruelty,  and  connected  his  name 
with  the  very  earliest  attempt  to  establish  a 
Protestant  mission  in  the  heathen  world.  He 
united  with  the  admiral  de  Coligny  in  estab- 
lishing a  colony  on  the  coast  of  Brazil,  to 
which  he  sent  Peter  Richter  and  several 
others  from  Geneva,  who  were  accompanied 
with  numerous  French  Protestants.*  Pres- 
bytery and  missions  are  therefore  coeval,  co- 
extensive, and  inseparable.  They  went  hand 
in  hand  during  the  first  six  centuries.  They 
again  clasped  hands  in  indissoluble  union  at 
the  era  of  the  Reformation.  They  have  lived 
together  in  wedded  peace,  harmony  and  zeal. 
And  whom  God  hath  so  joined  together,  let 
no  apathy,  or  unbelief,  or  opinions,  ever  put 
asunder. 

To  bequeath  to  us,  his  spiritual  descend- 
ants, these  incomparable  blessings,  Calvin 
early  sacrificed  the  glittering  crown  of  aca- 
demic fame,  and  certain  worldly  aggrandise- 
ment and  honour, — became  an  exile  from 
home,  kindred  and  country, — endured  ca- 
lumny, reproach,  persecution,  banishment 
and  poverty,  wore  out  his  weak  and  suffer- 
ing body  with  excessive  and  unremitting 
toil, — and  at  the  early  age  of  54  sunk  into 
the  tomb.t 

*  Scott,  ibid.  p.  462.  464. 

t  There  is  another  blessing  for  which,  as  Christians, 
we  are  indebted  to  Calvin,  and  which  cannot  be  too  highly 
estimated ;  I  mean  congregational  psalmody.  Calvin  en- 
couraged Marot  to  make  his  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  59 

SECTION  VIII. 

THE    CLOSING    SCENES    OF   CALVIN'S   LIFE. 

Let  us,  then,  before  we  take  our  leave, 
draw  near,  and  contemplate  the  last  act  in 
the  drama  of  this  great  and  good  man's  life. 

He  wrote  a  preface  to  them,  when  first  published,  in  1543. 
He  took  care  to  have  them  set  to  music  by  the  most  dis- 
tinguished musicians.  He  then  introduced  them  into  the 
public  service  of  the  church.  The  mode  of  singing 
psalms  in  measured  verse  was  thus  first  introduced  by 
Calvin,  at  Geneva,  in  1543.  From  that  church  the  prac- 
tice went,  forth  into  all  the  reformed  churches  in  France, 
and  was  introduced  into  England  by  the  Presbyterians 
who  resided  at  Geneva,  and  established  an  English  church 
there  during  the  Marian  persecution.  The  English  exiles, 
while  at  Geneva,  commenced  and  completed  a  translation 
of  the  Scriptures  into  the  English  language.  The  princi- 
pal translators  were  Miles  Coverdale,  Christopher  Good- 
man,  John  Knox,  Anthony  Gilby,  or  Gibbs,  Thomas 
Sampson,  William  Cole,  and  William  Whittingham. 
They  divided  the  chapters  into  verses,  and  added  notes  in 
the  margin,  and  also  tables,  maps,  &c,  and  published  it, 
with  a  dedication  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  in  1560.  The 
psalms,  versified  and  set  to  music,  as  in  the  church  of 
Geneva,  were  annexed  to  this  Bible.  This  version  has 
been  known  as  that  of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins.  The  ini- 
tials of  the  name  of  the  versifier  were  prefixed  to  each 
psalm.  Thus  the  psalms,  versified  in  English,  came  into 
England,  and  were  allowed,  first,  to  be  sung  before  the 
morning  and  evening  service ;  and  at  length  they  were 
published  with  this  declaration : — Psalms  set  forth  and 
allowed  to  be  sung  in  all  churches,  before  and  after  morning 
and  evening  prayer,  as  also  before  and  after  sermons.  And 
in  a  short  time  they  superseded  the  Te  Deum,  Benedicte, 
Magnificat,  and  Nunc  dimittis,  which  had  been  retained 
from  the  Romish  church.  Bayle,  Art.  Marot;  Neal,  p. 
109  ;  Heylin,  p.  213,  214;  Rees'  Cy.,  art.  Bible  ;  Burnet, 
p.  290;  Waterman's  Life  of  Calvin,  p.  403. 


60  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

Methinks  I  see  that  emaciated  frame,  that 
sunken  cheek,  and  that  bright,  ethereal  eye, 
as  Calvin  lay  upon  his  study-couch.  He 
heeds  not  the  agonies  of  his  frame,  his  vig- 
orous mind  rising  in  its  power  as  the  outward 
man  perished  in  decay.  The  nearer  he  ap- 
proached his  end,  the  more  energetically  did 
he  ply  his  unremitted  studies.  In  his  severest 
pains  he  would  raise  his  eyes  to  heaven  and 
say,  How  long,  0  Lord!  and  then  resume  his 
efforts.  When  urged  to  allow  himself  repose, 
he  would  say,  "What !  would  you  that  when 
the  Lord  comes  he  should  surprise  me  in 
idleness  ?"  Some  of  his  most  important  and 
laboured  commentaries  were  therefore  fin- 
ished during  this  last  year. 

On  the  10th  of  March,  his  brother  minis- 
ters coming  to  him,  with  a  kind  and  cheerful 
countenance  he  warmly  thanked  them  for  all 
their  kindness,  and  hoped  to  meet  them  at 
their  regular  assembly  for  the  last  time,  when 
he  thought  the  Lord  would  probably  take 
him  to  himself.  On  the  27th,  he  caused 
himself  to  be  carried  to  the  senate-house,  and 
being  supported  by  his  friends,  he  walked 
into  the  hall,  when,  uncovering  his  head,  he 
returned  thanks  for  all  the  kindness  they  had 
shown  him,  especially  during  his  sickness. 
With  a  faltering  voice,  he  then  added,  "  1 
think  I  have  entered  this  house  for  the  last 
time,"  and,  mid  flowing  tears,  took  his  leave. 
On  the  2d  of  April,  he  was  carried  to  the 
church,  where  he  received  the  sacrament  at 
the  hands  of  Beza,  joining  in  the  hymn  with 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  61 

such  an  expression  of  joy  in  his  countenance, 
as  attracted  the  notice  of  the  congregation. 
Having  made  his  will  on  the  27th  of  this 
month,*  he  sent  to  inform  the  syndics  and 
the  members  of  the  senate  that  he  desired 
once  more  to  address  them  in  their  hall, 
whither  he  wished  to  be  carried  the  next 
day.  They  sent  him  word  that  they  would 
wait  on  him,  which  they  accordingly  did,  the 
next  day,  coming  to  him  from  the  senate- 
house.  After  mutual  salutations,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  address  them  very  solemnly  for 
some  time,  and  having  prayed  for  them, 
shook  hands  with  each  of  them,  who  were 
bathed  in  tears,  and  parted  from  him  as  from 
a  common  parent.  The  following  day,  April 
28th,  according  to  his  desire,  all  the  ministers 
in  the  jurisdiction  of  Geneva  came  to  him, 
whom  he  also  addressed:  "I  avow,"  he 
said,  "that  I  have  lived  united  with  you, 
brethren,  in  the  strictest  bonds  of  true  and 
sincere  affection,  and  I  take  my  leave  of  you 
with  the  same  feelings.     If  you  have  at  any 

*  See  in  the  Appendix.  Speaking  of  his  will,  Bayle, 
the  great  Infidel  philosopher,  says : — "  For  a  man  who 
had  acquired  so  great  a  reputation  and  authority,  to  con- 
tent himself  with  a  hundred  crowns  a-year  salary,  and 
after  having  lived  till  near  fifty-five  years  of  age  with  the 
greatest  frugality,  to  leave  behind  him  no  more  than  three 
hundred  crowns,  his  library  included,  is  something  so 
heroical,  that  it  must  be  stupidity  itself  not  to  admire  it. 
To  conclude,  such  a  will  as  this  of  Calvin's,  and  such  a 
disinterestedness  is  a  thing  so  very  extraordinary,  as  might 
make  even  those  who  cast  their  eyes  on  the  philosophers 
of  ancient  Greece,  say  of  him,  non  inveni  tantam  Jidem  in 
Israel.  I  have  not  found  so  great  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel." 
See  his  Dictionary,  fol.  2.  art.  Calvin. 


62  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

time  found  me  harsh  or  peevish  under  my 
affliction,  I  entreat  your  forgiveness/'  Hav- 
ing shook  hands  with  them,  we  took  leave 
of  him,  says  Beza,  "  with  sad  hearts  and  by 
no  means  with  dry  eyes." 

"The  remainder  of  his  days,"  as  Beza 
informs  us,  "  Calvin  passed  in  almost  per- 
petual prayer.  His  voice  was  interrupted  by 
the  difficulty  of  his  respiration  ;  but  his  eyes 
(which  to  the  last  retained  their  brilliancy,) 
uplifted  to  heaven,  and  the  expression  of  his 
countenance,  shewed  the  fervour  of  his  sup- 
plications. His  doors,"  Beza  proceeds  to 
say,  "  must  have  stood  open  day  and  night,  if 
all  had  been  admitted  who,  from  sentiments 
of  duty  and  affection,  wished  to  see  him,  but 
as  he  could  not  speak  to  them,  he  requested 
they  would  testify  their  regard  by  praying 
for  him,  rather  than  by  troubling  themselves 
about  seeing  him.  Often,  also,  though  he 
ever  shewed  himself  glad  to  receive  me,  he 
intimated  a  scruple  respecting  the  interrup- 
tion thus  given  to  my  employments ;  so 
thrifty  was  he  of  time  which  ought  to  be 
spent  in  the  service  of  the  church." 

On  the  19th  of  May,  being  the  day  the 
ministers  assembled,  and  when  they  were 
accustomed  to  take  a  meal  together,  Calvin 
requested  that  they  should  sup  in  the  hall  of 
his  house.  Being  seated,  he  was  with  much 
difficulty  carried  into  the  hall :  "  I  have 
come,  my  brethren,"  said  he,  "to  sit  with 
you,  for  the  last  time,  at  this  table."  But, 
before  long,  he  said — "  I  must  be  carried  to 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  63 

my  bed ;"  adding,  as  he  looked  round  upon 
them,  with  a  serene  and  pleasant  counte- 
nance, "these  walls  will  not  prevent  my 
union  with  you  in  spirit,  although  my  body 
be  absent."  He  never  afterwards  left  his 
bed.  On  the  27th  of  May,  about  eight 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  the  symptoms  of  dis- 
solution came  suddenly  on.  In  the  full  pos- 
session of  his  reason,  he  continued  to  speak, 
until,  without  a  struggle  or  a  gasp,  his  lungs 
ceased  to  play,  and  this  great  luminary  of  the 
Reformation  set,  with  the  setting  sun,  to  rise 
again  in  the  firmament  of  heaven.  The  dark 
shadows  of  mourning  settled  upon  the  city. 
It  was  with  the  whole  people  a  night  of 
lamentation  and  tears.  All  could  bewail 
their  loss ;  the  city  her  best  citizen,  the  church 
her  renovator  and  guide,  the  college  her 
founder,  the  cause  of  reform  its  ablest  cham- 
pion, and  every  family  a  friend  and  comforter. 
It  was  necessary  to  exclude  the  crowds  of 
visiters  who  came  to  behold  his  remains,  lest 
the  occasion  might  be  misrepresented.  At 
two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  Sabbath,  his 
body,  enclosed  in  a  wooden  coffin,  and  fol- 
lowed by  the  syndics,  senators,  pastors,  pro- 
fessors, together  with  almost  the  whole  city, 
weeping  as  they  went,  was  carried  to  the 
common  burying  ground,  without  pomp. 
According  to  his  request,  no  monument  was 
erected  to  his  memory;  a  plain  stone,  without 
any  inscription,  being  all  that  covered  the 
remains  of  Calvin. 

Such  was  Calvin  in  his  life  and   in  his 


64  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

death.     The  place  of  his  burial  is  unknown, 
but  where  is  his  fame  unheard  ? 

As  Cato  said  of  the  proposed  statue  for 
himself,  so  may  it  be  said  of  Calvin's  monu- 
ment :  "  There  are  so  many  monuments  in 
this  world  of  ours,  that  it  may  be  much  bet- 
ter if  people  ask,  Where  is  Cato's  monument, 
than  to  say,  There  it  is."  So  is  it  with  Calvin. 
He  hath  built  himself  a  monument  in  the 
hearts  and  lives  of  millions,  more  enduring 
and  more  glorious  than  any  columns  of  stone 
or  brass. 

What  needs  great  Calvin,  for  his  honoured  bones, 

The  labour  of  an  age  in  piled  stones  ? 

Or  that  his  hallowed  relics  should  be  hid 

Under  a  star  y-pointing  pyramid  ? 

Dear  son  of  Memory,  great  heir  of  Fame, 

What  need'st  thou  such  weak  witness  of  thy  name? 

Thou,  in  our  reverence  and  astonishment, 

Hast  built  thyself  a  live-long  monument.* 

To  conclude,  we  may  unite  with  a  late 
episcopal  reviewer  of  the  character  of  Calvin, 
in  hoping  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant, 
when  new  Horsleys  wiJl   be  raised  up  to 

*  The  following  are  the  lines  of  Beza,  in  reference  to 
Calvin's  tomb : 

Why,  in  this  humble  and  unnoticed  tomb, 
Is  Calvin  laid,  the  dread  of  falling  Rome, 
Mourned  by  the  good,  and  by  the  wicked  feared, 
By  all  who  knew  his  excellence  revered ; 
From  whom  ev'n  Virtue's  self  might  virtue  learn, 
And  young  and  old  its  value  may  discern  ? 

'Twas  modesty,  his  constant  friend  on  earth, 
That  laid  this  stone,  unsculptured  with  a  name. 

O  happy  turf,  enriched  with  Calvin's  worth, 
More  lasting  far  than  marble  is  thy  fame. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  65 

break  in  pieces  the  arrows  of  calumny,  and 
to  make  all  the  followers  of  the  Prince  of 
Peace  and  truth  ashamed  to  join  the  ranks  of 
the  infidels,  in  using  the  poisoned  weapons 
of  shameless  detraction  for  the  purpose  of 
vilifying  the  character  of  one  of  the  most 
holy — the  most  undaunted — the  most  labori- 
ous, and  the  most  disinterested  followers  of  a 
crucified  Redeemer."* 


SECTION  IX. 

A    SUPPLEMENTARY    VINDICATION    OF    THE    ORDINATION    OF 
CALVIN. 

In  preparing  this  vindication  of  the  character 
and  life  of  Calvin,  I  was  not  led  to  notice  the 
question  which  has  been  raised  by  his  ene- 
mies, the  Romanists  and  Prelatists,  whether 
Calvin  Avas  ever  ordained.  This  question 
did  not  fall  under  the  general  view  of  Cal- 
vin's life  and  character,  which  it  was  my 
object  to  take.  The  question  had  been  often 
met,  and  triumphantly  answered;  and  ap- 
peared to  me  to  possess  little  interest  or  im- 
portance at  the  present  time.  Circumstances, 
however,  have  changed.  The  baseless  at- 
tempts to  fasten  upon  Calvin  an  approval  of 
diocesan  episcopacy,  having  been  completely 
foiled — and  the  calumnies  against  his  gene- 
ral character  having  been  repelled — his  ene- 

*  The  Rev.  Mr.  Sibson,  A.  B.,  of  Trinity  Coll.  Dublin,  in 
his  Transl.  of  Beza's  Life,  p.  118,  119. 


66  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

mies  have  taken  refuge  in  this  forlorn  hope, 
and  are  now  heard  on  every  side  exclaiming, 
"ah,  but  Calvin,  after  all,  was  never  or- 
dained." It  is  really  amusing  to  see  the 
baby-artifices  which  suffice  these  profound 
scholars !  these  inimitable  logicians !  these 
exclusive  possessors  of  all  grace  !  "  Calvin 
was  never  ordained,"  say  our  prelatic  friends. 
"  Calvin  was  never  ordained,"  shout  the 
Romanists.  "  And  Mr.  Smyth  has  not  even 
attempted  to  prove  this  all-important  fact," 
they  both  proclaim  in  loudest  chorus.  We 
will  now,  then,  meet  these  same  confident 
boasters,  and  accept  their  challenge  to  discuss 
this  question. 

And,  in  the  first  place,  we  remark,  that  it 
is  a  matter  of  no  practical  importance  what- 
ever, to  Presbyterians,  whether  Calvin  was 
or  was  not  ordained.  This  whole  outcry  is 
mere  noise,  voce  et  prseterea  nihil,  got  up  in 
order  to  drown  the  voice  of  reason,  and  turn 
away  attention  from  evident  defeat. 

Let  it  then  be  fully  understood  that  the 
validity  of  Presbyterian  ordination  depends, 

IN    NO    MANNER    OR    DEGREE,    Upon    the  Ordl- 

nation  of  Calvin.  He  may  have  been  or- 
dained or  not  ordained,  while  of  our  ordina- 
tion there  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt.  Were 
the  validity  of  our  ordinations  made  to  de- 
pend upon  the  personal  succession  of  a  line 
of  single  ordainers — were  Calvin  a  link  in 
that  line — and  were  our  present  chain  con- 
nected with  him — then,  indeed,  there  would 
be  some  sense  and  some  force  in  the  objec- 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  67 

tions  made  against  Calvin's  ordination.     It  is 
on  this  ground  we  boldly  deny  that  any  valid 
prelatical  ordination  exists,  or  can  be  shown 
to  exist,  either  in  the  Romish,  Anglican,  or 
American  Episcopal  churches.     But  we  hold 
to  no  such  doctrine.    Our  ordination  depends 
not  upon  one  prelate,  but  upon  many  pres- 
byters.    So  that  even  if  invalidity  could  be 
shown  to  attach  to  any  one  of  the  number 
of  presbyters  officiating  in  any  given  case,  it 
does  not  affect  the  whole,  and  consequently 
does  not  injure  that  ordination  which  is  given 
by  the  whole.  Did  Calvin  ever  ordain  alone  ? 
Did  Calvin  ordain  alone  all  those  from  whom 
our  present  ordinations  spring  ?     Preposter- 
ous assumption !  which  all  the  boldness  of 
reckless  malignity  has  never  dared  to  make. 
Suppose,  then,  that  Calvin,  while  unor- 
dained,  had  united  with  the  presbytery  of 
Geneva,  in  conferring  ordination  upon  others. 
Were  not  the  others,  Farel  and  Coraud,  or- 
dained, and  ordained  too  by  Romish  prelates? 
Were  not  Luther  and  Zuinglius,  and  many 
others,  prelatically    ordained?      And,  sub- 
tracting, therefore,  the  invalid  co-operation 
of  Calvin  from  the  ceremony,  was  there  not 
still  validity  enough  to  secure  a  valid  result  ? 
On  the  ground  of  scripture,  of  reason,  and 
of  the  theory  of  presbyterian  ordination,  most 
assuredly   there   was.     And   whatever   our 
opponents  may  choose  to  say  of  the  validity 
of  presbyterian  ordination  generally,  they 
cannot,  without  betraying  absolute  absurdity, 
affirm  that  it  depends,  in  any  degree,  upon 


68  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

the  fact  of  Calvin's  ordination.  This  whole 
question,  therefore,  is  merely  one  of  literary 
curiosity  and  historical  research. 

But  we  proceed  a  step  further,  and  affirm 
that  Calvin's  character  and  authority  as  a 
minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  did  not  depend  upon 
his  ordination.  Ordination  does  not  confer 
upon  any  man  either  the  character  or  the 
authority  of  a  minister  of  Christ.  The  quali- 
fications which  fit  any  man  for  this  high 
office  can  be  imparted  only  by  God,  through 
Christ,  and  by  the  effectual  operation  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  Without  these,  no  man  is  a  fit 
subject  for  ordination,  which  presupposes 
their  existence.  The  authority  to  preach 
the  gospel  arises  also  from  that  commission 
which  Christ  has  given  to  all  those  whom 
he — as  the  only  Head  of  the  Church,  to 
whom  all  power  in  heaven  and  on  earth  has 
been  given — has  qualified  for  the  work.  It 
is  a  blasphemous  assumption,  in  any  church 
or  body  of  men,  to  claim  the  power  of  im- 
parting to  others,  either  the  qualifications  or 
the  authority  to  preach  the  gospel.  Ordi- 
nation, therefore,  is  not  in  itself  absolutely 
essential  to  a  true  ministry,  since  there  may 
be  the  qualifications  and  the  authority  to  use 
them,  without  it.  Ordination  is  merely  the 
appointed  method  whereby  any  given  branch 
of  the  Church  declares  their  belief  that  the 
individual  ordained,  is  qualified  and  autho- 
rized by  God  to  preach  the  gospel:  and 
whereby  they  commend  him  to  all  those  for 
whom  they  act,  as  worthy  of  their  conn- 


OP    JOHN    CALVIN.  69 

dence,  and  entitled  to  all  the  respect  and 
consideration  due  to  a  minister  of  Christ. 
Ordination,  therefore,  is  essential  to  the  regu- 
larity, but  not  to  the  validity  of  the  minis- 
try. And  should  any  church  have  such  un- 
bounded confidence  in  the  qualifications  and 
call  of  any  man  for  the  office,  as  to  allow 
him  to  minister  among  them  without  a  spe- 
cial ordination,  he  would  be  no  less  certainly 
a  minister,  because  admitted  in  an  unusual 
way  to  the  exercise  of  his  gifts  and  calling. 
In  ordinary  circumstances,  of  course,  no  such 
case  could  occur.  We  speak  hypothetically. 
But  is  it  true  that  Calvin  was  never  ordained? 
— then  do  our  remarks  apply,  in  all  their 
strength,  to  him.  Who  ever  doubted  his 
qualifications  for  the  ministry  ?  Not,  surely, 
the  ministers  and  magistrates  of  Geneva, 
when  they,  almost  by  violence,  compelled 
him  to  enter  upon  its  duties.  Having,  then, 
as  the  whole  reformed  world  believe,  the 
qualifications  and  call  which  fitted  him  for 
the  ministry,  Calvin  had  also  the  authority 
of  Christ,  for  engaging  in  its  work.  And  if 
the  churches  thought  it  unnecessary  that  he 
should  be  formally  set  apart  by  ordination, 
Calvin's  authority  as  a  minister  of  Christ  is 
not  the  less,  but  even  the  more  evident ;  since 
it  was  believed  by  all  to  be  accredited  by 
extraordinary  gifts  and  calling.* 

*  See  these  views  fully  and  literally  sustained  by  the 
Confession  of  the  French  Churches,  article  xxxi.,  Quick's 
Synod,  vol.  1.  p.  xiii.;  and  by  many  other  reformed  bodies 
and  authors  as  given  in  Henderson's  Rev.  &  Consid.  p. 
252-263. 


70  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

But  still  further,  we  affirm,  that  Calvin 
was  authorized  to  preach  by  the  Romish 
Church  itself.  He  received  the  tonsure  at 
the  hands  of  the  Romish  prelate,  which  is 
the  first  part  of  the  ceremony  of  ordination, 
and  qualifies  for  holding  benefices  and  cures. 
The  hair  then  cut  from  the  crown  of  the 
head,  shows,  as  is  taught  by  Romanists,  that 
the  individual  partakes  of  the  sovereignty 
of  Jesus  Christ.*  In  virtue  of  this  office  and 
authority,  "  it  is  certain  "  that  John  Calvin 
delivered  some  sermons  at  Pont  L'Eveque, 
before  he  left  France. t  He  had  ordination 
sufficient,  therefore,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
Romish  Church,  to  warrant  his  preaching. 
And  since  the  power  this  church  professes  to 
give  in  ordination  for  the  priesthood,  is  idola- 
trous and  blasphemous,^  and  is  not  attempted 
or  believed  in  by  the  reformed  churches,  Cal- 
vin received  from  the  Romish  Church  all 
that  authority,  which  is  deemed  sufficient 
for  those  duties  recognised  by  protestants  as 
proper  and  peculiar  to  the  ministry. 

But  we  advance  still  further  in  our  argu- 
ment, and  assert  that  it  is  a  matter  of  the 
most  certain  inference  that  Calvin  was  or- 
dained in  the  Reformed  Church,  and  by  the 
presbytery  of  Geneva. 

That  a  presbytery  existed  at  Geneva, 
before  Calvin  reached  that  city,  is  beyond 

*  See  Broughton's  Eccl.  Diet.  Fol.  2.  468. 
t  Beza's  Life. 

t  The  offering  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ,  by  transubstantiation. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  71 

doubt.  Beza  expressly  declares  that,  when 
Farel,  by  his  denunciation,  overcame  the 
purpose  of  Calvin  to  pass  by  Geneva,  "  Cal- 
vin, affrighted  by  this  terrible  denunciation, 
gave  himself  up  to  the  will  of  the  presby- 
tery and  the  magistrates."  (Presbyterii  et 
magistratus  voluntati.)* 

That  it  was  the  established  and  uniform 
belief  of  the  reformers,  that  ordination,  in 
the  ordinary  circumstances  of  the  church, 
was  necessary  and  very  important,  and  that 
their  practice  was  consistent  with  this  belief, 
is  equally  certain.  Unless  this  is  denied,  it 
is  unnecessary  to  produce  the  proofs  which 
are  at  hand.t 

Nay  more,  it  is  beyond  doubt  that  this  was 
the  judgment  not  only  of  all  the  other  re- 
formers, but  also  of  Calvin  himself.  He  in- 
sists, in  many  parts  of  his  Institutes,  (his  ear- 
liest theological  work,)  upon  the  importance 
and  necessity  of  ordination  by  the  imposition 
of  hands.  (See  Book  IV.  chap.  hi.  §  16,  and 
chap.  iv.  §  6,  10,  14.)  These  sentiments, 
which  Calvin  had  published  just  before  going 
to  Geneva,  he  ever  after  held,  as  is  manifest 
in  all  the  subsequent  editions  of  this  work, 
and  in  the  Confession  of  the  French  Churches, 
which  he  drew  up,  and  in  which  ordination  is 
declared  to  be  essential  to  a  regular  ministry. 

The  inference,  therefore,  is  unavoidable, 
that  since  there  was  a  presbytery  at  Geneva 

*  Calvin  Op.  folio.  1. 

tSee  Seaman's  Vind.  of  the  judgment  of  the  Reformed 
Church  concerning  Ordination.     London,  1647. 


72  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

when  Calvin  went  there,  since  all  the  reform- 
ers, and  Calvin  in  particular,  insisted  on  the 
necessity  and  scripturality  of  ordination;  and 
since  Calvin  is  expressly  said  to  have  given 
himself  up  to  the  presbytery,  he  must  have 
been,  and  he  was,  ordained.  No  particular 
record  of  the  time  and  manner  of  his  conse- 
cration is  necessary.  There  is  circumstantial 
evidence  more  than  sufficient  to  establish  the 
fact  in  any  court  of  law. 

But  still  further.  Calvin  himself  bears 
witness  that  he  was  ordained.  Thus  in  his 
preface  to  his  Commentaries  on  the  Psalms, 
he  says: — aAs  David  was  raised  from  the 
sheepfold  to  the  highest  dignity  of  govern- 
ment, so  God  has  dignified  me,  derived  from 
an  obscure  and  humble  origin,  with  the  high 
and  honourable  office  of  minister  and  preacher 
of  the  Gospel."*  But,  since  Calvin  himself 
publicly  and  constantly  taught  the  necessity 
of  ordination  to  the  ministry,  in  making  this 
declaration  he  asserts  also  the  fact  of  his 
ordination.  Thus,  also,  when  Cardinal  Sa- 
dolet  attacked  the  character  of  his  ministry, 
he  formally  defended  it  in  a  long  epistle  ad- 
dressed to  that  distinguished  man.t  In  this 
defence  he  says:  "sed  quum  ministerium 
meum  quod  Dei  vocatione  fundatum  ac  san- 
citum  fuisse  non  dubito,  per  latus  meum  sau- 
ciari  videam,  perfidia  erit,  non  patientia,  si 
taceam  hie  atque  dissimulem.     Doctoris  pri- 

*  Hoc  tamen  honorifico  numere  dignatus  est,  ut  evan- 
gelii  praeco  essem  ac  minister.     Op.  Tom.  iii. 

t  Ad  J.  Sadoletum  Responio,  &c,  in  Op.  Tom.  viii.  p. 
105,  &c. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  /3 

mum,  deinde  pastoris  munere  in  ecclesia  ilia 
functus  sum.  Quod  earn  provinciam  suscepi, 
legitimas  fuisse  vocationis  jure  meo  conten- 
do."  "Hoc  ergo  ministerium  ubi  a  Domino 
esse-constiterit,"  &c.  That  is,  u  when  I  see 
my  ministry,  which  I  doubt  not  was  found- 
ed and  sanctioned  by  the  vocation  of  God, 
wounded  through  my  side,  it  would  be  per- 
fidy and  not  patience,  if  I  should  remain 
silent  and  dissemble  in  such  a  case.  I  filled 
(or  enjoyed  the  honor  of)  the  office,  first  of 
professor,  and  afterwards  of  pastor  in  that 
church,  and  I  contend  that  I  accepted  of  that 
charge,  having  the  authority  of  a  lawful 
vocation."  "  Since  then,  my  ministry  has 
been  established  by  the  Lord,"  &c.  If,  then, 
the  testimony  of  Calvin — published  to  the 
world,  in  the  face  of  the  Reformed  Churches, 
and  in  full  view  of  their  sentiments  and 
practice  on  the  subject  of  ordination,  in  both 
which  he  concurred — can  be  relied  on,  then 
is  his  introduction  to  the  ministry  by  a  regu- 
lar ordination,  beyond  all  controversy  certain. 
But  still  further.  We  have  the  evidence 
of  the  reformers  and  reformed  churches 
themselves,  that  Calvin  was  ordained.  No 
one  stood  higher  among  them  as  a  minister 
and  a  leader.  He  was  chosen  moderator  of 
the  presbytery  at  Geneva,  and  continued  to 
fill  that  office  till  his  death.  He  sat  in  the 
synods  of  the  Swiss  churches.  When  driven 
from  Geneva,  he  retired  to  Strasburgh,  where 
he  was  again  constrained  to  enter  upon  the 
duties  of  a  professor  and  a  pastor,  by  the 
7 


74  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

agency  of  those  distinguished  men,  Bucer, 
Capito,  Hedio,  Niger,  and  Sturmius.  Bucer, 
also,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  him  in  1536, 
expressly  calls  him  "my  brother  and  fellow 
minister.*'  Now  all  these  reformers,  as  we 
have  seen,  held  that  ordination  was  both 
scriptural  and  necessary;  and  since  Calvin 
himself  was  of  the  same  opinion,  we  must 
regard  their  testimony  to  his  ministerial  cha- 
racter and  standing,  as  proof  positive  of  their 
belief  that  he  was  regularly  ordained. 

Beza,  in  his  life  of  Calvin,  seems  to  declare 
that  he  was  ordained  as  plainly  as  language 
could  do  it.  He  says: — "Calvinus  sese  pres- 
byterii  et  magistratus  voluntati  permisit ; 
quorum  suffragiis,  accedente  plebis  consensu, 
delectus  non  concionatur  lantum  (hoc  autem 
primum  recusarat)  sed  etiam  sacrarum  lite- 
rarum  doctor,  quod  unum  admittebat,  est 
designates,  A.  D.  MDXXXVT."  That  is, 
"Calvin  surrendered  himself  to  the  disposal 
of  the  presbytery  and  magistrates,  by  whose 
votes,  (the  people  having  previously  ex- 
pressed their  willingness,)  having  been  chosen 
not  only  preacher,  (which  office  he  had, 
however,  at  first  declined,)  but  also  professor 
of  divinity,  he  was  set  apart  or  inducted  into 
office,  in  the  year  1536."  Now  the  very 
office  and  duty  of  a  presbytery  is,  among 
other  things,  to  admit  and  ordain  men  to  the 
ministry.  But  Calvin  was  admitted  to  the 
ministry  by  a  presbytery  composed  of  re- 
formers who  strongly  insisted  upon  the  im- 
portance of  the  rite  of  ordination.  Calvin, 
also,  concurred  in  their  views  of  this  ordi- 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  75 

nance,  as  introductory  to  the  ministry.  And 
Beza  says,  that  having  been  elected  pastor 
by  the  people,  and  having  been  approved  by 
the  votes  of  the  presbytery,  "  he  was  set 
apart,"  that  is,  in  the  regular  way,  by  ordi- 
nation. Beza  never  dreamt  that,  in  after 
times,  a  fact  so  necessarily  implied  in  his 
statement,  and  in  all  the  circumstances  of  the 
case,  could  or  would  be,  questioned. 

This  clear  testimony  of  Beza  is  confirmed 
by  that  of  Junius,  the  learned  Professor  of 
Divinity  in  Leyden.  In  opposition  to  Bel- 
larmine,  he  affirms  that  the  reformers  who 
preceded  Calvin,  held  and  practised  presby- 
terian  ordination,  and  that  by  some  of  these, 
his  predecessors,  Calvin  was  himself  ordain- 
ed.* 

Certain  it  is  that  neither  Romanists  nor 
prelatists,  at  that  day,  ever  questioned  the 
fact  that  Calvin  was  ordained  in  the  manner 
of  the  Reformed  Church.  The  Romanists 
did  not.  Cardinal  Bellarmine  says  that  "  nei- 
ther Luther,  nor  ZuingJe,  nor  Calvin,  were 
bishops,  (*.  e.  prelates,)  but  only  presbyters;! 
thus  evidently  assuming  as  undeniable  that 
they  were  all  presbyters,  and  therefore  or- 
dained as  such.  Cardinal  Sadolet  seems  also, 
from  the  controversy  between  him  and  Cal- 
vin, fully  to  have  admitted  Calvin's  ordina- 
tion according  to  the  order  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  but  to  have  denied  the  validity  of 
such  orders,  because  administered  out  of  the 

*  Animadversiones  in  Bellarm.  Controv.  V  Lib.  cap.  3, 
in  Dr.Miller  on  Min.  p.  407. 
t  Controv.  V  Lib.  cap.  3,  in  Dr.  Miller  on  Min. 


76  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

Romish  Church.  And  hence  the  object  of 
Calvin,  in  his  reply,  is  not  to  establish  the 
fact  of  his  ordination,  but  the  validity  and 
scripturality  of  the  orders  of  the  Reformed 
Church. 

Neither  did  prelatists  then  question  the 
ministerial  character  and  standing,  and  the 
consequent  ordination,  of  Calvin.  Dr.  John 
Philpot,  archdeacon  of  Winchester,  martyr 
in  1555,  in  proving  that  the  Reformed  is  the 
true  church,  by  the  ( spirit  of  wisdom,  that  the 
adversaries  thereof  could  never  be  able  to 
resist,'  says,  '  Where  is  there  one  of  you  all 
that  ever  hath  been  able  to  answer  any  of 
the  godly,  learned  ministers  of  Germany, 
who  have  disclosed  your  counterfeit  religion. 
Which  of  you  all,  at  this  day,  is  able  to  an- 
swer Calvin's  Institutes,  who  is  minister  of 
Geneva?'  To  this  his  popish  inquisitor,  Dr. 
Saverson,  replied,  not  by  denying  the  ordi- 
nation or  ministerial  character  of  Calvin,  but 
by  blackening  the  character  of  the  reformers 
generally — '  a  godly  minister,  indeed,  of  re- 
ceipt of  cutpurses  and  runagate  traitors,'  &c. 
'  I  am  sure,'  replied  Philpot,  <  you  blaspheme 
that  godly  man,  and  that  godly  church  where 
he  is  a  minister,  as  it  is  your  church's  con 
dition,  when  you  cannot  answer  men  by 
learning,  to  oppress  them  with  blasphemies 
and  false  reports.'*  This  title  he  proceeds 
to  give  Calvin  again  in  the  very  next  sen- 
tence.!    Bishop  Jewell,  the  authorized  ex- 

*  See  Examinations  and  Writings  of  Philpot,  Parker 
Society  edition,  p.  45,  46. 
t  Foxe's  Exatn.  of  Philpot. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  77 

pounder  of  the  sentiments  of  the  English 
Church,  replies  to  the  Jesuit  Harding, "  touch- 
ing Mr.  Calvin,  it  is  a  great  wrong  untruly 
to  represent  so  reverend  a  father  and  so  wor- 
thy an  ornament  of  the  church  of  God.  If 
you  had  ever  known  the  order  of  the  church 
of  Geneva,  and  had  seen  four  thousand  people 
or  more,  receiving  the  holy  mysteries  togeth- 
er at  one  communion,  you  could  not,  without 
your  great  shame  and  want  of  modesty,  thus 
untruly  have  published  to  the  world,  that 
by  Mr.  Calvin's  doctrine  the  sacraments  are 
superfluous." — Defence  of  the  Apology;  see 
in  Richmond's  Fathers  of  the  English  Church, 
vol.  viii.  p.  680.  Such  also  were  the  views 
entertained  by  Archbishop  Cranmer,  Bishop 
Hooper,  Bishop  Hall,  and  many  others. 
Hooker  implies  the  ordination  and  perfect 
ministerial  standing  of  Calvin,  in  all  that  he 
says  of  him.  He  calls  him  "  incomparably 
the  wisest  man  (i.  e.  minister)  the  French 
Church  did  enjoy,  since  the  hour  it  had  him." 
Speaking  of  the  Genevan  clergy,  he  calls 
them, "  pastors  of  their  souls,"  and  then  adds. 
"  Calvin  being  admitted  one  of  their  preach- 
ers," that  is,  one  of  these  pastors,  for  they 
had  no  preachers,  except  their  regularly  or- 
dained ministers,  "  wherefore  taking  to  him 
two  of  the  other  ministers,"  &.c* 

Bullinger  also,  the  cotemporary  of  Calvin, 
of  whom  it  is  said  that  "  all  the  fathers  of 
the  English  reformation  held  him  in  great 
esteem,"  and  that  "  he  did  much  service  in 

*  Bed  Pol.  Prcf.  vol.  i.  p.  158,  159,  Keble's  ed. 


78  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 

the  English  Church;"  to  whom  Bishops 
Grindal  and  Horn,  in  a  joint  letter  to  him, 
"attribute  chiefly  the  favourable  change 
which  had  taken  place  in  the  feelings  of  the 
people  toward  the  church  •>"*  and  whose 
catechism  was  selected  by  the  University  of 
Oxford,  as  one  of  those  books  which  the 
tutors  were  required  to  use ;  most  explicitly 
sustains  the  ministerial  character  of  Calvin. 
In  a  work  published  by  order  of  the  convo- 
cation of  the  English  Church  in  15S6,  cum 
gratia  et  privilegio  regise  majestatis,  and 
as  a  manual  for  preachers,!  he  speaks  of 
Calvin  in  these  terms :  "  John  Calvin,  a  godly 
and  learned  man,  who  with  great  commen- 
dation teacheth  in  the  church  at  this  day,  my 
fellow  minister,  and  most  well-beloved  and 
dear  brother." % 

"  Stancarus  also,  the  Polish  reformer, 
wrote  a  work  '  Adversus  Henricum  Bullin- 
gerum,  Petrum  Martyrem  et  Joannem  Cal- 
vinum,  et  reliquos  Tigurinae  ac  Genevensis 
ecclesise  minis tros,  ecclesise  Dei  perturba- 
tores,'  etc.,  Basle,  1547.  This  work  was 
replied  to  by  Semler,  and  is  referred  to  by 
Bishop  Jewell  in  a  letter  to  this  Swiss  refor- 
mer. Now  here  we  have  Calvin  expressly 
denominated  a  minister  by  a  Romanist,  in  a 
controversial  work  written  against  him,  and 
in  the  same  sense  in  which  Bullinger  and 
Peter  Martyr  are  called  ministers.     And  it 

*  Strype's  Mem.  II.  1.  p.  531,  532,  Oxf.  ed.     Strype's 
Grindal,  p.  156,  Oxf.  ed. 

t  Wilkin's  Concilia,  &.C.,  vol.  iv.  p.  321,  322. 

t  Bollinger  on  the  Sacraments,  Cambridge,  1840,  p.  287. 


OF    JOHN    CALVIN.  79 

remains  to  be  shown,  that  Roman  Catholic 
theologians  are  in  the  habit  of  applying  the 
term  i  minister'  to  persons  whom  they  believe 
to  be  in  no  sense  or  manner  ordained."*  In 
"  A  Christian  Letter  of  certain  English  Pro- 
testants, unfeigned  favourers  of  the  present 
state  of  religion  authorized  and  professed  in 
England,  unto  that  reverend  and  learned 
man,  Mr.  R.  Hooker,"  written  in  1590,  it  is 
said,  "  the  reverend  fathers  of  our  church  call 
Mr.  Calvin  one  of  the  best  writers  (Whitgift 
Def.  of  Ans.  p.  390);  a  reverend  father  and 
a  worthy  ornament  of  the  church  of  God, 
(Jewel  Apol.  Def.  of,  pt.  II.  p.  149;  read  any 
English  writer  defending  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, and  namely  Fulke  against  Stapleton 
fortress,  p.  71;  read  Apol.  Angl.)  not  only 
defending  the  same  doctrine,  but  also  dis- 
charging him  of  slanderous  reports  wrong- 
fully laid  against  him;  knowing  that  by  de- 
faming the  persons  of  ministers,  the  devil  of 
old  time  laboured  to  overthrow  the  gospel  of 
Christ."  See  quoted  at  length  in  Hanbury's 
edition  of  Hooker's  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  22,  23. 
The  whole  is  very  strong.  See  also  Words- 
worth's Eccl.  Biogr.  vol.  iv.  p.  269,  vol.  v. 
p.  544,  &c.  Of  the  opinion  of  the  English 
Church,  as  to  the  ordination  of  John  Calvin 
in  1586,  there  can,  therefore,  be  no  longer 
any  question. 

Such,  then,  is  the  accumulated  evidence  in 
proof  of  the  certain  and  necessary  ordination 
of  Calvin.     It  can  only  be  denied  by  those 

*  See  Zurich  Letters,  1558—1579,  Parker  Society,  p< 


SO        LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OP  CALVIN. 

who  are  willing,  for  sectarian  purposes,  to 
shut  their  eyes  against  the  clearest  light.  It 
is  asserted  by  Calvin  himself,  by  Beza,  and 
by  Junius.  It  is  implied  as  necessary  in  the 
practice  of  the  whole  Reformed  Church,  of 
which  Calvin  approved,  and  which  the  pres- 
bytery of  Geneva  must  have  carried  out.  It 
was  allowed  by  Romanists  and  prelatists  of 
his  own  age,  and  is  implied  in  the  estimation 
in  which  he  was  regarded  by  the  whole  Re- 
formed Church. 

But  even  were  the  ordination  of  Calvin 
doubtful,  we  have  shown  that  he  was  so  far 
ordained  by  the  Romish  Church  as  to  be  au- 
thorized to  preach;  that  his  authority  as  a 
minister  depends  not  on  the  ceremony  of  or- 
dination; and  that,  inasmuch  as  our  present 
orders  are  in  no  degree  dependent  upon  his, 
their  validity  is  in  no  way  connected  with 
the  fact  or  certainty  of  Calvin's  ordination. 

While  the  validity  of  Romish  and  Pre- 
latical  ordination  hangs  upon  the  baseless 
assumption  of  an  unbroken  line  of  personal 
successors  of  the  Apostles — a  mere  figment 
of  the  imagination,  and  without  any  founda- 
tion in  Scripture,  reason,  or  fact — our  ordi- 
nation is  traced  up  directly  to  Christ  and  his 
Apostles ;  is  based  upon  the  clear  evidence  of 
Scripture,  and  the  undoubted  practice  of  the 
primitive  Christians;  and  is  transmitted,  not 
through  one  line,  but  through  many,  and  not 
through  any  one  order  of  prelates,  but  through 
the  whole  body  of  pastors  and  ministers  who 
have  successively  existed  in  every  age  of  the 
Church. 


APPENDIX  I. 


THE  WILL  OF  JOHN  CALVIN. 

In  the  name  of  the  Lord. — Amen.  In  the 
year  1564,  and  25th  day  of  April,  I,  Peter 
Chenalat,  citizen  and  notary  of  Geneva,  do 
witness  and  declare,  that  I  was  sent  for  by 
that  excellent  character,  John  Calvin,  minister 
of  the  word  of  God  in  this  church  of  Geneva, 
and  enrolled  citizen  of  the  same,  who,  being 
indisposed  in  body,  but  sound  in  mind,  said 
he  was  desirous  to  make  his  testament,  and 
to  express  the  judgment  of  his  last  will;  and 
requested  me  to  take  it  down,  and  write  what 
he  should  dictate  and  declare  by  word  of 
mouth;  which  I  profess  I  immediately  did, 
and  wrote  down  word  by  word  as  he  pro- 
nounced and  dictated,  without  omission  or 
addition,  in  the  following  form,  dictated  by 
him: 

In  the  name  of  the  Lord. — Amen.  I,  John 
Calvin,  minister  of  the  word  of  God  in  the 
church  of  Geneva,  finding  myself  so  much 
oppressed  and  afflicted  with  various  diseases, 
that  I  think  the  Lord  God  has  determined 
speedily  to  remove  me  out  of  this  world, 
have  ordered  to  be  made  and  written,  my 
8 


82  APPENDIX. 

testament,  and  declaration  of  my  last  will,  in 
form  and  manner  following:  First,  I  give 
thanks  to  God,  that  taking  compassion  on 
me  whom  he  had  created  and  placed  in  this 
world,  he  not  only  delivered  me  by  his  power 
out  of  the  deep  darkness  of  idolatry,  into 
which  I  was  plunged,  that  he  might  bring 
me  into  the  light  of  his  gospel,  and  make  me 
a  partaker  of  the  doctrine  of  salvation,  of 
which  I  was  most  unworthy;  that  with  the 
same  goodness  and  mercy  he  has  graciously 
and  kindly  borne  with  my  multiplied  trans- 
gressions and  sins,  for  which  I  deserved  to 
be  rejected  and  cut  off  by  him;  and  has  also 
exercised  towards  me  such  great  compassion 
and  clemency,  that  he  has  condescended  to 
use  my  labour  in  preaching  and  publishing 
the  truth  of  his  gospel.  I  also  testify  and 
declare,  that  it  is  my  full  intention  to  pass 
the  remainder  of  my  life  in  the  same  faith 
and  religion,  which  he  has  delivered  to  me 
by  his  gospel;  having  no  other  defence  or 
refuge  of  salvation  than  his  gratuitous  adop- 
tion, on  which  alone  my  safety  depends.  I 
also  embrace  with  my  whole  heart  the  mercy 
which  he  exercises  towards  me  for  the  sake 
of  Jesus  Christ,  atoning  for  my  crimes  by  the 
merits  of  his  death  and  passion,  that  in  this 
way  satisfaction  may  be  made  for  all  my 
transgressions  and  offences,  and  the  remem- 
brance of  them  blotted  out.  I  further  testify 
and  declare  that,  as  a  suppliant,  I  humbly 
implore  of  him  to  grant  me  to  be  so  washed 
and  purified  by  the  blood  of  that  sovereign 


APPENDIX.  83 

Redeemer,  shed  for  the  sins  of  the  human 
race,  that  I  may  be  permitted  to  stand  before 
his  tribunal  in  the  image  of  the  Redeemer 
himself.  I  likewise  declare,  that  according 
to  the  measure  of  grace  and  mercy  which 
God  lias  vouchsafed  me,  I  have  diligently 
made  it  my  endeavour,  both  in  my  sermons, 
writings,  and  commentaries,  purely  and  un- 
corruptly  to  preach  his  word,  and  faithfully 
to  interpret  his  sacred  Scriptures.  I  testify 
and  declare,  that  in  all  the  controversies  and 
disputes,  which  I  have  conducted  with  the 
enemies  of  the  gospel,  I  have  made  use  of 
no  craftiness,  nor  corrupt  and  sophistical  arts, 
but  have  been  engaged  in  defending  the  truth 
with  candour  and  sincerity. 

But,  alas!  my  study,  and  my  zeal,  if  they 
deserve  the  name,  have  been  so  remiss  and 
languid,  that  I  confess  innumerable  things 
have  been  wanting  in  me  to  discharge  the 
duties  of  my  office  in  an  excellent  manner; 
and  unless  the  infinite  bounty  of  God  had 
been  present,  all  my  study  would  have  been 
vain  and  transient.  I  also  acknowledge  that 
unless  the  same  goodness  had  accompanied 
me,  the  endowments  of  mind  bestowed  upon 
me  by  God,  must  have  made  me  more  and 
more  chargeable  with  guilt  and  inactivity 
before  his  tribunal.  And  on  these  grounds 
I  witness  and  declare,  that  I  hope  for  no  other 
refuge  of  salvation  than  this  alone — that  since 
God  is  a  Father  of  mercy,  he  will  show  him- 
self a  Father  to  me,  who  confess  myself  a 
miserable  sinner.     Further,  I  will,  after  my 


84  APPENDIX. 

departure  out  of  this  life,  that  my  body  be 
committed  to  the  earth  in  that  manner,  and 
with  those  funeral  rites,  which  are  usual  in 
this  city  and  church,  until  the  day  of  the 
blessed  resurrection  shall  come.  As  for  the 
small  patrimony  which  God  has  bestowed 
upon  me,  and  which  I  have  determined  to 
dispose  of  in  this  will,  I  appoint  Anthony 
Calvin,  my  very  dearly  beloved  brother,  my 
heir,  but  only  as  a  mark  of  respect.  Let  him 
take  charge  of,  and  keep  as  his  own,  my 
silver  goblet,  which  was  given  me  as  a  pre- 
sent by  Mr.  Varanne:  and  I  desire  he  will 
be  content  with  it.  As  for  the  residue  of  my 
property,  I  commit  it  to  his  care  with  this 
request,  that  he  restore  it  to  his  children  at 
his  death.  I  bequeath  also  to  the  school  for 
boys,  ten  golden  crowns,  to  be  given  by  my 
brother  and  legal  heir,  and  to  poor  strangers 
the  same  sum.  Also  to  Jane,  daughter  of 
Charles  Costans,  and  of  my  half-sister  by  the 
paternal  side,  the  sum  of  ten  crowns.  Fur- 
thermore, I  wish  my  heir  to  give,  on  his 
death,  to  Samuel  and  John,  sons  of  my  said 
brother,  my  nephews,  out  of  my  estate,  each 
forty  crowns,  after  his  death;  and  to  my 
nieces  Ann,  Susan,  and  Dorothy,  each  thirty 
golden  crowns.  To  my  nephew  David,  as 
a  proof  of  his  light  and  trifling  conduct,  I 
bequeath  only  twenty-five  golden  crowns. 

This  is  the  sum  of  all  the  patrimony  and 
property  which  God  hath  given  me,  as  far 
as  I  am  able  to  ascertain,  in  books,  mov- 
ables, my  whole  household  furniture,  and  all 


APPENDIX.  85 

other  goods  and  chattels.  Should  it  how- 
ever prove  more,  I  desire  it  may  be  equally 
distributed  between  my  nephews  and  nieces 
aforesaid,  not  excluding  my  nephew  David, 
should  he,  by  the  favour  of  God,  return  to  a 
useful  manner  of  life. 

Should  it,  however,  exceed  the  sum  already 
written,  I  do  not  think  it  will  be  attended 
with  much  difficulty,  especially  after  paying 
my  just  debts,  which  I  have  given  in  charge 
to  my  said  brother,  in  whose  fidelity  and 
kindness  I  confide.  On  this  account  I  appoint 
him  executor  of  this  my  last  testament  with 
Laurence  de  Normandie,  a  character  of  tried 
worth,  giving  them  full  power  and  authority, 
without  a  more  exact  command  and  order  of 
court,  to  make  an  inventory  of  my  goods.  I 
give  them  also  power  to  sell  my  movables, 
that  from  the  money  thus  procured  they  may 
fulfil  the  conditions  of  my  above-written  will, 
which  I  have  set  forth  and  declared  this  25th 
of  April,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1564. 

John  Calvin. 

When  I,  Peter  Chenalat,  the  above-men- 
tioned notary,  had  written  this  last  will,  the 
same  John  Calvin  immediately  confirmed  it 
by  his  usual  subscription  and  hand-writing. 
On  the  following  day,  April  26th,  1564,  the 
same  tried  character,  John  Calvin,  command- 
ed me  to  be  called,  together  with  Theodore 
Beza,  Raymond  Chauvet,  Michael  Cops, 
Louis  Enoch,  Nicholas  Colladon,  James  de 
Bordes,  ministers  and  preachers  of  the  word 


86  APPENDIX. 

of  God  in  this  church  of  Geneva,  and  also 
the  excellent  Henry  Scringer,  professor  of 
arts,  all  citizens  of  Geneva,  and  in  their  pre- 
sence he  hath  declared  and  testified  that  he 
dictated  to  me  this  his  will,  in  the  words  and 
form  above  written.  He  ordered  me  also  to 
recite  it  in  their  hearing,  who  had  been  called 
for  that  purpose,  which  I  profess  to  have 
done,  with  a  loud  voice,  and  in  an  articulate 
manner.  After  thus  reading  it  aloud,  he  tes- 
tified and  declared  it  to  be  his  last  will  and 
testament,  and  desired  it  to  be  ratified  and 
confirmed.  As  a  testimony  and  corrobora- 
tion of  this,  he  requested  them  all  to  witness 
the  same  will  with  their  hands.  This  was 
immediately  done  by  them  on  the  day  and 
year  above  written,  at  Geneva,  in  the  street 
called  the  Canons,  in  the  house  of  the  said 
testator.  In  proof  and  witness  of  this  I  have 
written  and  subscribed  with  my  own  hand, 
and  sealed,  with  the  common  seal  of  our 
supreme  magistrate,  the  will  above  mention- 
ed. 

P.  Chenalat. 


APPENDIX  II. 


CALVIN'S  VIEWS  OF  PRELACY. 

On  this  subject  we  will  present  to  our  rea- 
ders, the  letters  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Miller  in 
reply  to  Bishop  Ives,  which  appeared  in  the 
Presbyterian  in  January,  1842. 

LETTER     I, 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Presbyterian, 

Reverend  and  dear  Brother — The  fol- 
lowing letter,  and  another  which  you  will 
receive  in  a  few  days,  were  written  a  num- 
ber of  weeks  ago,  and  sent  to  Lincolnton,  in 
North  Carolina,  for  insertion  in  the  "  Lincoln 
Republican/'  a  weekly  journal  printed  in 
that  town.  Very  unexpectedly  to  me,  the 
editor  of  that  paper,  after  publishing  Bishop 
Ives's  letter,  refused  to  give  admission  to  my 
reply.  On  learning  this,  I  requested  the  friend 
to  whose  care  my  communications  had  been 
sent,  to  transmit  them  to  the  "  Watchman  of 
the  South,"  in  whose  pages  they  would  be 
likely  to  be  seen  by  a  large  number  of  those 
who  had  been  readers  of  the  "  Lincoln  Re- 
publican." But  as  Bishop  Ives's  letter  has 
been  republished  in  at  least  one  paper  in  your 
city,  and  as  in  my  reply  to  an  attack  in  that 


88  APPENDIX. 

paper,  which  you  were  so  good  as  to  publish, 
I  referred  to  the  letters  which  had  been  sent 
to  North  Carolina  for  further  light  on  the 
same  subject,  I  hope  you  will  do  me  the  fa- 
vour to  give  insertion  in  the  Presbyterian  to 
the  first  letter,  which  you  will  receive  here- 
with; and  also  to  the  second,  which,  with 
the  permission  of  Providence,  will  reach  you 
next  week. 

I  make  no  apology,  Mr.  Editor,  for  the 
trouble  which  I  have  given  you,  for  several 
weeks  past,  in  consequence  of  these  eccle- 
siastical polemics.  I  regret  them  as  much  as 
any  one  can  do.  They  were  not  of  my  seek- 
ing. I  am  not  conscious  on  this,  or  on  any 
other  occasion,  of  having  ever  gone  into  the 
field  of  denominational  controversy,  except- 
ing when  forced  into  it  by  fidelity  to  my 
beloved  Church,  and  to  her  Head,  my  Mas- 
ter in  heaven.  To  that  high  responsibility, 
however  irksome  controversy  may  be,  espe- 
cially at  my  time  of  life,  I  hope  I  shall  never 
be  suffered  to  be  recreant.  It  would  be  much 
more  agreeable  to  me  to  have  no  warfare 
but  with  the  open  enemies  of  our  "  common 
salvation;"  but  surely  complaints  of  "attack" 
come  with  rather  an  ill  grace  from  those  who 
scarcely  ever  issue  a  paper  without  loading 
it  with  offensive  missiles  against  all  who  are 
out  of  their  pale.  It  has  often  amused  me  to 
see  what  a  morbid  sensibility  to  what  they 
called  "attacks,"  was  manifested  by  those 
who  were  constantly  dealing  around  them 
"  firebrands  and  arrows,"  and  professing  at 


APPENDIX.  89 

the  same  time,  in  words,  to  be  "  fierce  for 
moderation,"  and   "furious  for  peace."     I 
am,  my  dear  sir,  very  respectfully  yours, 
Samuel  Miller. 
Princeton,  January  24, 1842. 


To  the  Editor  of  the  Lincoln  Republican. 

Sir — It  was  not  until  this  day  that  I  saw, 
in  your  paper  of  the  10th  instant,  a  letter 
from  Bishop  Ives,  in  reply  to  a  letter  from  me, 
directed  to  a  clerical  friend  in  your  neigh- 
bourhood, and  published  in  your  paper  a  few 
weeks  before. 

My  letter  was  a  private  one,  and  publish- 
ed altogether  without  my  consent.  I  kept 
no  copy  of  it,  and  while  I  distinctly  remem- 
ber its  general  substance,  I  have  not  the  least 
recollection  of  its  language.  The  Bishop  com- 
plains of  the  language,  as  strongly  character- 
ized by  asperity  and  positiveness.  As  I 
have  never  seen  even  the  printed  copy,  as  it 
appeared  in  your  paper,  I  am  wholly  unable 
to  make  any  other  reply  to  this  charge,  than 
to  say,  that,  as  I  felt  strongly  on  the  subject, 
and  was  perfectly  confident  that  the  allega- 
tions which  I  opposed  were  altogether  un- 
founded, I  think  it  probable,  that  in  a  private 
letter  to  a  friend,  I  expressed  myself  in  terms 
which  would  have  been  modified  if  I  had  felt 
myself  to  be  writing  for  the  public  eye.  ■  I 
had  an  interview  with  Bishop  Ives,  in  this 
place,  since  the  date  of  his  letter ;  but  as  I 
had  not  the  least  knowledge,  at  that  time  of 


90  APPENDIX. 

the  publication  of  my  own  letter,  or  of  his 
reply  to  it,  nothing,  of  course,  respecting  the 
matter  passed  at  that  interview. 

More  than  two  months  ago,  a  correspon- 
dent in  North  Carolina  informed  me  that 
Bishop  Ives,  in  a  public  discourse  delivered 
a  short  time  before,  alleged  that  the  celebra- 
ted reformer,  Calvin,  had  avowed  a  belief  in 
the  divine  institution  of  Episcopacy,  and  had 
requested  to  receive  Episcopal  ordination 
from  the  bishops  of  England.  My  correspon- 
dent requested  me  to  inform  him  whether 
there  was  any  foundation  for  this  statement. 
I  ventured,  without  hesitation,  to  assure  him 
that  there  was  not,  and  that  no  well-informed 
person  could  possibly  make  it.  I  have  no 
recollection  of  having  impeached  the  honesty 
or  the  veracity  of  the  reverend  preacher;  for 
I  had  no  doubt  that  he  made  the  statement 
on  evidence  which  he  deemed  sufficient;  and 
I  have  still  no  doubt  that  he  verily  believed 
what  he  stated  to  be  strictly  true.  But  I 
meant  to  express,  and  presume  I  did  ex- 
press, strong  confidence  that  the  representa- 
tion which  he  made  was  entirely  incorrect. 
Bishop  Ives  is  equally  confident  that  his 
representation  was  well  founded;  and,  in  his 
reply  to  my  published  letter,  has  made  state- 
ments which  he  seems  to  think  perfectly 
decisive,  and  which,  I  dare  say,  many  others 
will  deem  equally  decisive,  in  support  of  his 
representation.  And  yet  I  will  again  assert, 
and  hope  I  shall  make  it  appear  to  the  satis- 
faction  of  every  candid  reader,  that  that 


APPENDIX.  91 

representation  is  destitute  of  all  solid  support 
in  historical  verity. 

The  first  testimony  which  Bishop  Ives  ad- 
duces in  support  of  his  former  statement,  is 
in  the  following  words:  "  In  his  commentary 
upon  1  Tim.  iv.  14,  a  passage  so  much  relied 
upon  by  Presbyterians,  he  gives  an  interpre- 
tation which  makes  it  perfectly  consistent 
with  the  Episcopal  character  of  Timothy." 

The  passage,  in  our  common  translation, 
reads  thus :  "  Neglect  not  the  gift  that  is  in 
thee,  which  was  given  thee  by  prophecy, 
with  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  pres- 
bytery." 

Calvin's  commentary  is  as  follows:  "  He 
admonishes  him  that  he  should  employ  the 
grace  with  which  he  was  endowed  for  the 
edification  of  the  Church.  For  it  is  not  the 
will  of  the  Lord  that  those  talents  should 
perish,  or  be  uselessly  buried  in  the  earth, 
which  he  has  deposited  with  any  one  to  be 
profitably  used.  To  neglect  a  gift,  is,  through 
sloth  and  negligence,  to  leave  it  unemployed; 
so  that,  given  up,  as  it  were,  to  rust,  it  is 
worn  out  in  no  useful  service.  Therefore  let 
each  of  us  consider  what  abilities  he  has,  that 
he  may  sedulously  apply  them  to  some  use. 
He  says  that  the  grace  Avas  given  to  him  by 
prophecy.  How?  Doubtless  (as  we  said 
before)  because  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  revela- 
tion, had  appointed  Timothy  to  be  set  apart 
to  the  office  of  a  pastor;  for  he  had  not  been 
chosen  only  by  man's  judgment,  as  is  custo- 
mary, but  by  the  previous  declaration  of  the 


92  APPENDIX. 

Spirit.  He  says  that  it  was  conferred  with 
the  laying  on  of  hands;  by  which  is  meant 
that,  in  addition  to  the  ministerial  office,  he 
was  furnished  also  with  the  necessary  gifts. 
It  was  a  settled  custom  with  the  Apostles  to 
ordain  ministers  with  the  imposition  of  hands; 
and,  indeed,  concerning  this  rite,  its  origin 
and  meaning,  I  have  treated  at  some  length 
before,  and  a  full  account  may  be  found 
in  the  Institutes.  Presbytery — Those  who 
think  that  this  is  a  collective  name  put  for 
the  college  of  Presbyters,  in  my  opinion 
judge  correctly.  Although,  all  things  con- 
sidered, I  confess  there  is  another  sense  not 
unsuitable,  viz.  that  it  is  the  name  of  an 
office.  The  ceremony  he  has  put  for  the  act 
of  ordination  itself.  Therefore  the  sense  is, 
that  Timothy,  when  called  to  the  ministry 
by  the  voice  of  the  prophets,  and  afterwards 
ordained  by  the  customary  rite,  was,  at  the 
same  time,  furnished  for  the  performance  of 
his  duties  by  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit — 
whence  we  infer  that  it  was  not  an  empty 
rite,  for  to  that  consecration  which  men  re- 
presented figuratively  by  the  imposition  of 
hands,  God  imparted  reality,  (or  ratification) 
by  his  Spirit." 

This  is  Calvin's  commentary  on  the  pas- 
sage in  question,  and  it  is  the  ivhole  of  it. 
He  who  can  find  any  thing  favourable  to  the 
Episcopal  character  of  Timothy  here,  will 
be  at  no  loss  to  find  it  in  any  document  on 
earth.  The  only  thing  noticeable  in  its  bear- 
ing on  that  point  is  the  suggestion,  that  while 


APPENDIX.  93 

in  the  opinion  of  Calvin  the  term  Presbytery 
means  the  bench  or  body  of  Presbyters,  it 
may  mean  the  name  of  an  office.  But  sure- 
ly this  makes  nothing  in  favour  of  the  prela- 
tical  character  of  Timothy;  for  if  this  sense 
be  admitted,  then  the  statement  will  be  that 
Timothy  was  ordained  to  the  office  of  the 
Presbyter  ate,  or  was  made  a  Presbyter. 

The  Bishop  next  produces  a  fragment 
from  Calvin's  commentary  on  Titus  i.  5, 
which  he  thus  translates :  "  We  learn  also 
fronf  this  place  that  there  was  not  then  such 
an  equality  among  the  ministers  of  the 
Church,  but  that  some  one  had  the  pre-em- 
inence in  authority  and  counsel." 

The  candid  reader  will  doubtless  feel  as- 
tonished when  he  reads  this  passage  in  con- 
nection with  the  context  in  which  it  stands — 
It  is  as  follows  : 

"  Presbyters  or  Elders,  it  is  well  known, 
are  not  so  denominated  on  account  of  their 
age,  since  young  men  are  sometimes  chosen 
to  this  office,  as,  for  instance,  Timothy;  but 
it  has  always  been  customary,  in  all  ages,  to 
apply  this  title,  as  a  term  of  honour,  to  all 
rulers — and  as  we  gather,  from  the  first  Epis- 
tle to  Timothy,  that  there  were  two  kinds  of 
Elders,  so  here  the  context  shows  that  no 
other  than  teaching  Elders  are  to  be  under- 
stood; that  is  those  who  were  ordained  to 
teach,  because  the  same  persons  are  immedi- 
ately afterwards  called  Bishops.  It  may  be 
objected  that  too  much  power  seems  to  be 
given  to  Titus,  when  the  Apostle  commands 


94  APPENDIX. 

him  to  appoint  ministers  over  all  the  churches. 
This,  it  may  be  said,  is  little  less  than  kingly 
power ;  for,  on  this  plan,  the  right  of  choice 
is  taken  away  from  the  particular  churches, 
and  the  right  of  judging  in  the  case  from  the 
college  of  pastors — and  this  would  be  to  pro- 
fane the  whole  of  the  sacred  discipline  of  the 
Church.  But  the  answer  is  easy.  Every 
thing  was  not  entrusted  to  Titus  as  an  indi- 
vidual, nor  was  he  allowed  to  impose  such 
Bishops  on  the  churches  as  he  pleased ;  but 
he  was  commanded  to  preside  in  the  elections 
as  a  Moderator,  as  it  is  necessary  for  some 
one  to  do.  This  is  a  mode  of  speaking  ex- 
ceedingly common.  Thus  a  Consul  or  Re- 
gent or  Dictator  is  said  to  create  Consuls,  be- 
cause he  convenes  assemblies  for  the  purpose 
of  making  choice  of  them.  So  also  Luke 
uses  the  same  mode  of  speaking  concerning 
Paul  and  Barnabas  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles ;  not  that  they  alone  authoritatively  ap- 
pointed pastors  over  the  churches  without 
their  being  tried  or  approved ;  but  they  or- 
dained suitable  men,  who  had  been  elected 
or  chosen  by  the  people.  We  learn  also  from 
this  place,  that  there  was  not,  then,  such  an 
equality  among  the  ministers  of  the  Church  as 
was  inconsistent  with  some  one  of  them  pre- 
siding in  authority  and  counsel.  This,  how- 
ever, is  nothing  like  the  tyrannical  and  pro- 
fane Prelacy  which  reigns  in  the  Papacy:  the 
plan  of  the  Apostles  was  altogether  different." 
Is  the  reader  prepared  to  find  Bishop  Ives 
separating  the  last  sentence  but  one  in  this 


APPENDIX.  95 

paragraph  from  what  preceded  and  what  fol- 
lows, and  calling  it  a  declaration  in  favour  of 
Episcopacy ',  when  its  whole  tenor  is  directly 
the  other  way  ?  If  the  Bishop  had  read  one 
page  further  on,  he  would  have  found  in 
Calvin's  commentary  on  verse  7th  of  the  same 
chapter,  the  following  still  more  explicit  de- 
clarations : 

"  Moreover,  this  place  abundantly  teaches 
us  that  there  is  no  difference  between  Pres- 
byters and  Bishops,  because  the  Apostle  now 
calls  promiscuously  by  the  second  of  these 
names  those  whom  he  had  before  called  Pres- 
byters— and  indeed  the  argument  which  fol- 
lows employs  both  names  indifferently  in  the 
same  sense,  which  Jerome  hath  observed,  as 
well  in  his  commentary  on  this  passage,  as  in 
his  Epistle  to  Evagrius.  And  hence  we  may 
see  how  more  has  been  yielded  to  the  opin- 
ions of  men  than  was  decent,  because  the  style 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  being  abrogated,  a  custom 
introduced  by  the  will  of  man  prevailed.  I 
do  not,  indeed,  disapprove  of  the  opinion  that, 
soon  after  the  commencement  of  the  Church, 
every  college  of  Bishops  had  some  one  to  act 
as  Moderator.  But  that  a  name  of  office 
which  God  had  given  in  common  to  all, 
should  be  transferred  to  an  individual  alone, 
the  rest  being  robbed  of  it,  was  both  injuri- 
ous and  absurd.  Wherefore,  so  to  pervert 
the  language  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  that  the 
same  expressions  should  convey  a  meaning 
to  us  different  from  that  which  he  intended, 
partakes  too  much  of  profane  audacity." 


96  APPENDIX. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  work  which 
contains  this  passage  was  published  in  1549, 
in  the  reign  of  EdwardVI.;  and  when  Calvin 
was  carrying  on  a  friendly  correspondence 
with  Archbishop  Cranmer — yet  he  did  not 
hesitate  then  to  avow  his  Presbyterian  senti- 
ments. 

Again;  in  his  commentary  on  1  Peter  v.  1, 
written  in  1551,  and  dedicated  to  Edward 
VI.  of  England,  Calvin  thus  speaks: 

"Presbyters. — by  this  title  he  designates 
pastors,  and  whoever  were  appointed  to  the 
government  of  the  Church.  And  since  Peter 
calls  himself  a  Presbyter,  like  the  rest,  it  is 
hence  apparent  that  this  name  was  common, 
which,  indeed,  from  many  other  passages, 
appears  still  more  clearly.  Moreover,  by 
this  title  he  claimed  to  himself  authority,  as 
if  he  had  said  that  he  admonished  pastors  in 
his  own  right,  because  he  was  one  of  their 
number,  for  among  colleagues  there  ought  to 
be  this  mutual  privilege  :  whereas  if  he  had 
enjoyed  any  pre-eminence  of  authority  among 
them,  he  might  have  urged  that,  and  it  would 
have  been  more  pertinent  to  the  occasion. 
But  although  he  was  an  Apostle,  yet  he  knew 
this  gave  him  no  authority  over  his  colleagues, 
but  that  he  was  rather  joined  with  the  rest  in 
a  social  office/' 

Bishop  Ives,  as  a  further  proof  that  Calvin 
was  persuaded  of  the  Divine  right  of  Pre- 
lacy, tells  us  that  in  his  commentary  on  Gala- 
tians  ii.  9,  he  represents  it  as  "  highly  proba- 
ble that  St.  James  was  prefect  of  the  Church 


APPENDIX.  97 

of  Jerusalem."  "  Now,"  says  he,  "  a  prefect 
is  a  chief  and  permanent  ruler  of  others." 
Here  again  the  slightest  inspection  of  what 
Calvin  does  really  and  truly  say,  will  suffi- 
ciently refute  this  construction  of  his  lan- 
guage.    It  is  this: 

"When  the  question  is  here  concerning 
dignity,  it  may  seem  wonderful  that  James 
should  be  preferred  to  Peter.  Perhaps  that 
might  have  been  done  because  he  was  the 
president,  (praefectus)  of  the  Church  of  Jeru- 
salem. In  regard  to  what  may  be  included 
in  the  title  of  "  Pillars,"  we  know  that  it  is 
so  ordered  in  the  nature  of  things,  that  those 
who  excel  others  in  talents,  in  prudence,  or 
in  other  gifts,  are  also  superior  in  authority. 
So  in  the  Church  of  God,  by  how  much  any 
one  excels  in  grace  by  so  much  ought  he  to 
be  preferred  in  honour.  For  it  is  ingratitude, 
nay  it  is  impiety,  not  to  do  homage  to  the 
Spirit  of  God  wherever  he  appears  in  his 
gifts.  Hence  it  is,  that  as  a  people  cannot  do 
without  a  pastor,  so  every  assembly  of  pas- 
tors needs  some  one  to  act  as  moderator 
But  it  ought  ever  to  be  so  ordered  that  he 
who  is  first  of  all  should  be  a  servant,  accord- 
ing to  Matthew  xxiii.  12." 

In  his  commentary  on  Acts  xx.  28,  writ- 
ten in  1560,  a  few  years  before  his  death, 
Calvin  expresses  himself  thus:  "Concerning 
the  word  Bishop  it  is  observable  that  Paul 
gives  this  title  to  all  the  Elders  of  Ephesus; 
from  which  we  may  infer,  that,  according  to 
Scripture,  Presbyters  differed,  in  no  respect, 
9 


98  APPENDIX. 

from  Bishops;  but  that  it  arose  from  corrup- 
tion, and  a  departure  from  primitive  puri- 
ty, that  those  who  held  the  first  seats  in  par- 
ticular cities  began  to  be  called  Bishops.  I 
say  that  it  arose  from  corruption,  not  that  it 
is  an  evil  for  some  one  in  each  college  of 
pastors,  to  be  distinguished  above  the  rest; 
but  because  it  is  intolerable  presumption, 
that  men,  in  perverting  the  titles  of  Scripture 
to  their  own  humour,  do  not  hesitate  to  alter 
the  meaning  of  the  Holy  Spirit." 

The  Bishop's  extract  from  Calvin's  work 
De  necessitate  Beformandse  Ecclesix,  will 
also  prove,  when  examined,  quite  as  little  to 
his  purpose  as  any  of  the  preceding.  The 
passage,  as  given  by  him,  is  in  the  following 
words:  "If  they  will  give  us  such  an  hie- 
rarchy in  which  the  bishops  have  such  a  pre- 
eminence as  that  they  do  not  refuse  to  be 
subject  to  Christ,  then  I  will  confess  that  they 
are  worthy  of  all  anathemas,  if  any  such 
shall  be  found  who  will  not  reverence  it,  and 
submit  themselves  to  it  with  the  utmost  obe- 
dience." 

The  passage,  as  really  found  in  Calvin's 
work  is  as  follows: — After  speaking  of  the 
hierarchy  of  the  Romish  Church;  of  its  claims 
of  uninterrupted  succession  from  the  apos- 
tles, which  he  turns  into  ridicule ;  and  of  the 
gross  departure  of  the  bishops  from  the  spirit 
and  rules  of  the  gospel,  he  says :  "  If  the 
Papists  would  exhibit  to  us  such  an  hie- 
rarchy, as  that  the  bishops  should  be  so  dis- 
tinguished as  not  to  refuse  to  be  subject  to 


APPENDIX.  99 

Christ;  to  rely  on  him  as  their  only  Head;  to 
cherish  fraternal  union  among  themselves; 
and  to  be  bound  together  by  no  other  tie  than 
his  truth,  then  I  should  confess  that  there  is 
no  anathema  of  which  they  are  not  worthy, 
who  should  not  regard  such  an  hierarchy 
with  reverence  and  obedience.  But  what 
likeness  to  such  an  one  is  borne  by  that  spu- 
rious hierarchy,  in  which  they  (the  Roman- 
ists) boast?"  He  then  goes  on  inveighing 
against  the  arrogance  and  tyranny  of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome,  by  name,  and  showing  how 
entirely  different  that  system  is  from  that  to 
which  Christ  and  his  apostles  gave  their 
sanction,  and  even  that  which  prevailed  in 
the  time  of  Cyprian. 

It  is  well  known  that  Calvin,  in  all  his 
writings  maintained  that  there  were  Bishops 
in  the  primitive  Church ;  that  every  pastor  of 
a  congregation  was  a  scriptural  bishop ;  of 
course,  he  might  well  say,  that  if  there  were 
any  who  would  not  obey  such  bishops  as 
were  conformed  to  the  will  of  Christ,  they 
were  worthy  of  all  condemnation.  Some 
have  alleged  indeed,  that  his  use  of  the  word 
hierarchy,  (hierarchiam)  in  this  passage, 
proves  that  he  could  have  had  reference  to 
no  other  than  a prelatical  government;  that 
the  term  is  never  applied  to  any  other.  This 
is  an  entire  mistake.  The  word  hierarchy 
simply  implies  sacred  or  ecclesiastical  gov- 
ernment. It  may  be  applied  with  as  much 
propriety  to  Presbyterianism  or  Indepen- 
dency, as  to  Prelacy.    Calvin  himself  in  his 


100  APPENDIX. 

Institutions,  Book  iv.  chapter  5,  speaks  of 
that  hierarchy,  or  spiritual  government, 
which  was  left  in  the  Church  by  the  apostles, 
and  which  he  expressly  declares,  in  the  same 
chapter,  to  be  Presbyterian  in  its  form. 

Further,  we  are  told,  it  seems,  by  Durell, 
in  his  "View  of  the  Foreign  Reformed 
Churches,"  that  Calvin,  in  writing  to  an 
"  old  friend,"  speaks  of  the  office  of  Bishop 
as  of  "divine  institution  or  appointment." 
It  is  true  that  language  of  this  kind  is  found 
in  that  letter,  but  the  most  cursory  perusal  of 
the  whole  letter,  will  banish  from  any  candid 
mind  the  idea  that  Calvin  is  here  speaking 
of  diocesan  or  prelatical  Episcopacy.  Does 
not  every  intelligent  reader  know  that  that 
great  Reformer  believed  and  uniformly  taught 
that  the  office  of  Bishop  (that  is,  of  "the  pri- 
mitive, parochial  bishop,)  was  a  divine  in- 
stitution? It  is  evidently  of  this  parochial 
Episcopacy  that  he  speaks,  when  writing  to 
his  "old  friend"  in  the  language  above 
quoted.  The  duties  which  he  urges  upon 
him,  and  the  passages  of  Scripture  which  he 
quotes  to  enforce  his  counsel;  all  show  that 
it  is  that  Episcopacy  alone  which  he  main- 
tains to  be  of  divine  appointment.  A  Prela- 
tist  might  as  well  quote  the  fourth  chapter  of 
the  Presbyterian  Form  of  Government,  in 
which  it  speaks  of  Bishops,  as  proof  positive 
that  it  maintains  the  divine  right  of  Prelacy, 
as  adduce  the  language  cited  by  Bishop  Ives 
to  prove  that  Calvin  was  an  advocate  for  the 
divine  institution  of  Prelatical  Episcopacy. 


APPENDIX.  101 

Such  is  the  clear,  indubitable  testimony 
that  the  illustrious  Reformer  of  Geneva  was 
guiltless  of  the  charge  which  has  been  brought 
against  him.  It  is  manifest  that,  with  perfect 
uniformity  during  the  greater  part  of  his  pub- 
lic life,  from  1535  to  1560,  he  steadfastly 
maintained  the  doctrine  that  the  apostolic 
form  of  church  government  was  Presbyte- 
rian, and  not  Prelatical:  that  even  in  works 
which  he  dedicated  to  the  king  of  England 
and  to  the  Lord  Protector,  the  highest  noble- 
man in  the  realm,  he  still  firmly  contended 
for  the  scriptural  doctrine  of  ministerial  pari- 
ty. The  more  closely  I  examine  his  writings, 
the  more  confirmed  is  my  persuasion,  that 
nothing  which  wears  a  contrary  aspect  can 
be  fairly  produced  from  them. 

II.  The  second  allegation  of  Bishop  Ives, 
is,  that  this  eminent  man  ivished  to  intro- 
duce Prelacy  into  the  Church  of  Geneva; 
and  that  he  united  with  others  in  request- 
ing the  English  Bishops  to  impart  it  to 
them. 

If  I  do  not  greatly  mistake,  this  allegation 
also  is  capable  of  being  completely  refuted. 
But  as  I  have  already  trespassed  so  far  on 
the  columns  of  your  paper,  I  shall  postpone 
to  another  week,  the  remarks  and  the  testi- 
mony which  I  have  to  adduce  in  regard  to 
that  point.  In  the  mean  time,  I  am,  Sir,  with 
great  respect,  your  obedient  servant, 

Samuel  Miller, 

Prixceton,  Nov.  20th,  1841. 


102  APPENDIX. 


LETTER     II. 


The  second  allegation  of  Bishop  Ives  is,  that 
Calvin  ivas  desirous  of  introducing  dioce- 
san Episcopacy  into  the  Church  of  Gene- 
va; and  that  he,  icith  others,  requested  the 
bishops  of  England  to  impart  it  to  them. 

I  have  expressed  a  strong  confidence  that 
this  statement  is  utterly  unfounded;  and  that 
it  admits  of  satisfactory  refutation.  To  at- 
tempt this  refutation  I  now  proceed. 

And,  in  proceeding  to  the  execution  of  this 
task,  my  first  remark  is,  that,  anterior  to  all 
search  after  testimony,  the  allegation  is,  in  it- 
self utterly  incredible.  The  character  which 
the  friends  of  Prelacy  are  fond  of  imputing 
to  John  Calvin,  is  that  of  an  austere,  fierce, 
tyrannical  man,  fond  of  power,  and  impatient 
of  all  opposition.  His  character,  indeed,  in 
this  respect,  has  been  much  misunderstood, 
and  shamefully  misrepresented.  A  degree 
of  magisterial  intolerance  has  been  ascribed 
to  him,  which  he  never  manifested.  Still  it 
is  true  that  he  possessed  great  decision  of 
character,  and  that  in  following  his  convic- 
tions, and  labouring  to  attain  his  favourite 
objects,  he  was  hardly  ever  exceeded  by  any 
man.  In  this,  it  is  believed,  all  are  agreed. 
Now  if  this  man,  who  had  such  controlling 
influence  in  Geneva,  had  been  desirous  of 
introducing  Prelacy  into  his  own  pastoral 
charge,  and  the  neighbouring  churches,  who 


APPENDIX.  103 

was  there  to  prevent  it  ?  Surely  not  the  civil 
government.  The  secular  rulers  had  been 
accustomed  to  Prelacy  all  their  lives,  and 
would,  no  doubt,  have  regarded  it  with  more 
favour  than  any  other  form  of  ecclesiastical 
regimen  that  could  be  proposed  to  them. 
Not  his  ministerial  colleagues,  for  though 
they  were  by  no  means  timid  or  pliant  men, 
yet  his  influence  over  them  seems  to  have 
been  of  the  highest  kind;  and  if  Prelacy  had 
been  introduced,  who  can  doubt  that  Calvin 
himself  would  have  been  the  Prelate  ?  Who 
else  would  have  been  thought  of?  To  him 
all  eyes  would  have  been  instantly  directed. 
No  one  acquainted  with  the  history  of  Lu- 
ther, Calvin,  and  several  of  the  leading  Re- 
formers, who  acted  with  them,  can  hesitate 
a  moment  to  believe,  that  a  Bishop's  chair 
was  within  the  reach  of  every  one  of  them, 
if  he  had  only  signified  his  wish  to  the  effect, 
or  even  intimated  his  belief  that  such  an 
office  was  warranted  by  the  word  of  God. 

But  suppose  in  the  face  of  all  this  impro- 
bability, that  Calvin  did  wish  to  introduce 
Prelacy;  what  occasion  had  he  to  go  to  Eng- 
land for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  it?  Were 
there  not  several  men  who  had  been  Bishops 
under  the  Papacy,  who  espoused  the  cause 
of  the  Reformation,  and  who  would  have 
been  ready  to  lend  their  aid  toward  the  con- 
summation of  the  desired  object?  Besides, 
our  Episcopal  brethren  tell  us  that  the  Wal- 
denses  always  had  bishops,  in  their  sense  of 
that  title,  among  them.    If  so,  where  was  the 


104  APPENDIX. 

difficulty  of  Calvin  and  his  colleagues  obtain- 
ing the  Episcopal  succession,  as  the  modern 
phrase  is,  from  that  body  of  pious  believers? 
We  know,  indeed,  that  this  assertion  con- 
cerning the  Waldenses  is  unfounded.  They 
had  no  such  bishops.  They  themselves,  in 
their  correspondence  with  Oecolampadius, 
in  1530,  explicitly  inform  him  that  they  had 
not;  still,  as  an  argument um  ad  hominem, 
the  argument  is  conclusive.  Either  there 
were  no  such  bishops  among  that  pious, 
devoted  people,  as  Prelatists  claim;  or  Cal- 
vin, who  knew  the  Waldenses  intimately,  and 
had  intercourse  with  them,  acted  a  strange 
part  in  seeking  an  ecclesiastical  favour  from 
the  British  Church,  which  he  might,  quite  as 
conveniently,  to  say  the  least,  have  obtained 
from  churches  in  his  native  country,  where 
many  of  them  were  settled,  as  well  as  in  the 
Valleys  of  Piedmont. 

But  there  is  another  fact  bearing  on  the 
point,  no  less  conclusive.  The  allegation  is, 
that  Calvin  and  his  friends  begged  for  Epis- 
copal consecration  from  Archbishop  Cran- 
mer,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  when  that 
prelate  was  at  the  head  of  the  ecclesiastical 
affairs  of  England.  Now,  in  that  very  reign, 
when  this  wish  and  request  must  have  been 
pending,  as  shown  in  a  former  letter,  we  find 
Calvin  repeatedly  publishing  to  the  world 
his  opposition  to  Prelacy,  and  his  solemn  con- 
viction that  the  Scriptures  laid  down  a  differ- 
ent form  of  church  order;  and  one  of  these 
publications,  containing  one  of  his  strongest 


APPENDIX.  105 

assertions  in  favour  of  Presbyterianism,  he 
dedicated  to  the  king  of  England,  and  sent  to 
him  by  the  hand  of  a  special  messenger;  on 
the  return  of  which  messenger,  Cranmer 
wrote  to  Calvin  an  affectionate  letter,  thank- 
ing him  for  his  present,  and  expressing  an 
opinion  that  he  could  not  do  better  than  often 
to  write  to  the  king.  (See  Strype's  Memori- 
als of  Cr anrner,  p.  413.)  How  is  it  possible 
for  these  things  to  hang  together?  If  Calvin 
was  capable  of  writing  and  printing  these 
things,  and  sending  them  by  special  messen- 
gers to  the  king,  and  to  Archbishop  Cranmer, 
at  the  very  time  when  he  was  negotiating 
with  Cranmer,  to  obtain  from  him  an  inves- 
titure of  a  different  and  opposite  kind; — if  he 
was  capable  of  acting  thus,  it  would  be  dif- 
ficult to  say,  whether  he  was  more  of  a  knave 
or  a  fool.  But  I  know  not  that  any  one,  who 
was  acquainted  with  the  history  or  the  wri- 
tings of  that  eminent  man,  ever  charged  him 
with  being  either. 

The  first  evidence  that  Bishop  Ives  addu- 
ces to  support  his  allegation,  that  Calvin  de- 
sired to  obtain  Prelatical  Episcopacy  for  his 
own  Church  in  Geneva,  is  drawn  from  his 
language  in  the  Confession  of  Faith,  which 
he  composed  in  the  name  of  the  French 
Churches.  The  friends  of  Prelacy  are  hear- 
tily welcome  to  all  the  testimony  which  can 
be  drawn  from  that  confession.  Every  thing 
in  it  which  bears  upon  this  point  is  in  the 
following  words:  "As to  the  true  Church,  we 
believe  it  ought  to  be  governed  according  to 
10 


106  APPENDIX. 

the  policy  which  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has 
established;  that  is,  that  there  be  Pastors,  El- 
ders and  Deacons;  that  the  pure  doctrine  may 
have  its  course ;  that  vices  may  be  corrected 
and  repressed;  that  the  poor  and  all  other 
afflicted  persons  be  succoured  in  their  necessi- 
ties; and  that  all  the  assemblies  be  made  in  the 
name  of  God,  in  which  both  great  and  small 
may  be  edified.  We  believe  that  all  true  pas- 
tors, in  whatsoever  place  they  be,  have  the 
scnne  authority  and  an  equal  poiver,  under 
one  only  Chief,  only  Sovereign,  and  universal 
Bishop  Jesus  Christ;  and  for  that  reason  that 
no  church  ought  toB pretend  to  Sovereignty  or 
Lordship  over  another."  If  this  be  evidence 
that  Calvin  wished  to  introduce  Prelacy  into 
those  churches  on  the  Continent,  over  which 
he  had  influence,  then  I  know  not  what  tes- 
timony means.  The  Confession  is  decisively 
anti-prelatical  in  its  character  throughout, 
and  the  churches  which  were  organized  on 
its  basis,  were  as  thoroughly  Presbyterian  as 
the  Church  of  Scotland  ever  was.  In  the 
"  Articles  of  ecclesiastical  discipline/7  drawn 
up  at  the  same  time,  it  is  declared  that  "  a 
President  in  each  Colloquy  (or  classis)  or  Sy- 
nod shall  be  chosen  with  a  common  consent 
to  preside  in  the  Colloquy  or  Synod,  and  to 
do  every  thing  that  belongs  to  it;  and  the  said 
office  shall  end  with  each  Colloquy  or  Synod 
and  Council."  {See  Laval's  History  of  the 
Ref or  lit  a  Hon  in  France,  Vol.  I.  p.  118.) 

Another  source  of  proof  on  which  Bishop 
Ives  relies  to  show  that  Calvin  wished  for 


APPENDIX.  107 

and  endeavoured  to  obtain  Prelacy  from  the 
English  Church,  is  found  in  the  language 
which  he  addressed  to  the  clergy  of  Cologne, 
blaming  them  for  attempting  to  depose  their 
Archbishop,  because  he  was  friendly  to  the 
Reformation.  But  could  not  Calvin  repro- 
bate this  conduct  without  believing  in  the 
divine  institution  of  the  office  which  the  Arch- 
bishop held?  Suppose  Bishop  Ives  should 
become  a  Calvinist,  as  to  his  theological  creed, 
and  suppose  the  Episcopal  Clergy  of  North 
Carolina  should  conspire  on  that  account 
alone,  to  expel  him  from  his  diocese,  might 
not  the  firmest  Presbyterian  in  the  State  re- 
monstrate against  their  conspiracy  without 
being  an  advocate  for  the  divine  right  of 
prelacy?  Might  he  not  consider  it  much 
better  to  retain,  in  an  influential  station,  one 
who  was  an  advocate  for  evangelical  truth, 
rather  than  thrust  him  out  to  make  way  for 
an  errorist  in  doctrine  as  well  as  in  church 
order  ? 

A  further  testimony  to  which  he  appeals 
is,  that  Calvin,  in  writing  to  Ithavius,  a 
Polish  Bishop,  styles  him  "  illustrious  and 
Reverend  Lord  Bishop."  He  addresses  him, 
"  illustris  et  reverende  Domine."  The  last 
word,  which  is  equivalent  to  sir,  Calvin  ad- 
dresses to  the  humblest  curate  to  whom  he 
writes.  Of  course  no  stress  can  be  laid  on 
that  title.  But  what  does  the  venerable  Re- 
former say  to  this  Polish  dignitary  ?  Urging 
him  to  give  his  influence  decisively  in  favour 
of  the  Reformation,  he  writes  to  him  in  the 


10S  APPENDIX. 

following  faithful  language — apart  of  which 
only  Bishop  Ives  quotes — "It  is  base  and 
wicked  for  you  to  remain  neutral,  when  God 
as  with  outstretched  hand,  calls  you  to  de- 
fend his  cause.  Consider  what  place  you 
occupy,  and  what  burden  has  been  laid  upon 
you."  This  is  proof  enough  that  Calvin 
thought  that  Ithavius  had  been  placed  in  his 
station  by  the  providence  of  God,  and  that 
he  was  bound  to  employ  all  the  influence 
and  authority  connected  with  that  station  for 
promoting  the  cause  of  truth ;  and  certainly 
nothing  more.  I  take  for  granted  that  Bishop 
Ives  believes  that  the  tyrant  Nero  was  raised 
to  the  imperial  throne  by  the  providence  of 
God;  that,  in  that  station,  he  had  a  great 
opportunity  for  doing  good,  if  he  had  been 
inclined  to  improve  it;  and  that  any  benevo- 
lent inhabitant  of  his  dominions  might  have 
addressed  his  emperor  in  the  very  language 
addressed  to  lihavius,  without  believing  in 
the  divine  right  of  monarchy. 

An  extract  of  a  letter  from  Calvin  to  the 
King  of  Poland,  is  also  brought  forward  to 
show  that  he  was  an  advocate  for  Prelacy. 
Let  the  passage  which  Bishop  Ives  refers  to 
be  seen  in  its  connexion,  and  its  worthless- 
ness  for  his  purpose,  will  be  manifest  to  the 
most  cursory  reader.  It  is  as  follows: — 
"  Finally,  it  is  ambition  and  arrogance  alone 
that  have  invented  this  Primacy  which 
the  Romanists  hold  up  to  us.  The  ancient 
Church  did  indeed  institute  Patriarchates, 
and  also  appointed  certain  primacies  to  each 


APPENDIX.  109 

province,  in  order  that,  by  this  bond  of  con- 
cord, the  Bishops  might  continue  more  united 
among  themselves;  just  as  if  at  the  present 
day,  one  Archbishop  were  set  over  the  king- 
dom of  Poland;  not  to  bear  rule  over  the 
others,  or  to  arrogate  to  himself  authority  of 
which  the  others  are  robbed ;  but  for  the  sake 
of  order,  to  hold  the  first  place  in  Synods, 
and  to  cherish  a  holy  union  among  his  col- 
leagues and  brethren.  Then  there  might 
be  either  provincial  or  city  Bishops,  to  attend 
particularly  to  the  preservation  of  order:  in- 
asmuch as  nature  dictates  that,  out  of  each 
college  one  should  be  chosen  on  whom  the 
chief  care  should  devolve.  But  possessing 
an  office  of  moderate  dignity,  that  is  to  the 
extent  of  a  man's  ability,  is  a  different  thing 
from  embracing  the  whole  world  in  unlimited 
jurisdiction." 

Here  it  is  evident  that,  by  the  "  Ancient 
Church,"  Calvin  meant,  not  the  apostolic 
church;  for  then  there  were  no  patriarch- 
ates, as  all  agree ;  but  the  church  as  it  stood 
in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries.  He  thus 
fully  explains  this  phrase  in  his  letter  to  Sa- 
dolet,  as  well  as  in  his  Institutes.  And  it 
is  no  less  evident  that  by  the  man  in  each 
college  of  ecclesiastics  on  whom  the  "chief 
care  was  to  be  devolved,"  he  meant  only  a 
standing  moderator,  such  as  he  describes  in 
those  extracts  from  his  commentary,  which  I 
detailed  in  my  last  letter.  And  besides,  as 
Calvin  knew  that  prelacy  was  universally 
and  firmly  established  in   Poland,  he  was 


110  APPENDIX. 

much  more  anxious  to  plead  for  the  promo- 
tion of  the  doctrines  and  spirit  of  true  religion 
in  that  country,  than  for  pulling  down  its 
hierarchy.  Hence  he  was  disposed  to  treat 
the  latter  with  indulgence,  if  the  former  might 
have  free  course. 

But  Bishop  Ives  seems  to  lay  the  greatest 
stress  for  proof  of  his  assertion,  on  a  statement 
found  in  Strype's  "Memorials  of  Cranmer," 
p.  207;  and  in  his  "Life  of  Bishop  Parker" 
pp.  69,  70.  The  story,  as  related  by  Strype, 
is,  that  Bullinger  and  Calvin  and  others, 
wrote  a  joint  letter  to  king  Edward,  offering 
to  make  him  their  defender,  and  to  have  such 
bishops  in  their  churches  as  there  were  in 
England.  The  story  is  a  blind  and  incredi- 
ble one.  Let  us  see  the  letter,  and  we  will 
then  believe  that  such  a  communication  was 
sent,  and  not  till  then.  The  truth  is,  Bonner 
and  Gardiner  were  popish  bishops,  entirely 
out  of  favour  during  the  reign  of  king  Ed- 
ward, and  a  letter  directed  to  the  king  would 
be  by  no  means  likely  to  fall  into  their  hands. 
Calvin  is  known  to  have  kept  up  a  constant 
correspondence  with  Archbishop  Cranmer, 
as  long  as  the  latter  lived.  Cranmer  con- 
sulted him  frequently,  sought  his  counsel  on 
a  variety  of  occasions,  and  requested  his  aid 
in  conducting  the  affairs  of  the  English  Re- 
formation. The  Archbishop  sent  to  Calvin 
the  first  draught  of  the  English  Liturgy,  early 
in  the  reign  of  Edward,  requesting  his  advice 
and  criticism  respecting  it.     Calvin  returned 


APPENDIX.  Ill 

it,  saying  that  he  found  in  it  some  tolerabiles 
inept ias  (some  tolerable  fooleries)  which  he 
could  wish  might  be  corrected.  This  criti- 
cism was  well  received,  and  the  Liturgy  was 
corrected  agreeably  to  his  wishes.  This  fact 
is  attested  by  Dr.  Hey  tin,  one  of  the  bitterest 
opponents  of  Calvin,  and  of  Presbyterianism, 
that  ever  lived.  "The  first  Liturgy,"  says 
he,  "was  discontinued,  and  the  second  su- 
perinduced upon  it,  to  give  satisfaction  unto 
Calvin's  cavils,  the  curiosities  of  some,  and 
the  mistakes  of  others,  his  friends  and  fol- 
lowers." History  of  the  Presbyterians,  p. 
12.207.  Dr.  Nichols,  also,  the  author  of  a 
Commentary  on  the  Common  Prayer,  bears 
testimony  to  the  same  fact,  in  the  following 
statement.  "  Four  years  afterwards  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  underwent  another  re- 
yiew,  wherein  some  ceremonies  and  usages 
were  laid  aside,.and  some  new  prayers  added, 
at  the  instance  of  Mr.  Calvin  of  Geneva,  and 
Bucer5  a  foreign  divine,  who  was  invited  to 
be  a  Professor  at  Cambridge."  Preface  to 
his  Comment,  p.  5. 

The  fact  is,  Cranmer  and  his  coadjutors  in 
the  English  Reformation,  had  to  struggle  with 
great  difficulties.  The  Papists,  on  the  one 
hand,  assailed  and  reproached  them  for  car- 
rying the  Reformation  too  far ;  while  some  of 
the  most  pious  dignitaries,  and  others  in  the 
Church,  thought  it  was  not  carried  far  enough. 
In  these  circumstances,  Cranmer  wrote  often 
to  the  Reformers  on  the  Continent,  and  sought 


112  APPENDIX. 

advice  and  countenance  from  them,  and  to 
none  more  frequently  than  to  Calvin  who 
wrote,  we  are  told,  in  return,  much  to  encour- 
age and  animate  Cranmer.  Among  other 
expressions  of  opinion,  we  are  informed  that 
Calvin  blamed  Bishops  Hooper  and  Latimer. 
those  decided  friends  of  evangelical  truth, 
for  their  persevering  scruples  respecting  the 
habits  or  ecclesiastical  vestments,  which  were 
then  the  subject  of  so  much  controversy.  He 
gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  where  the  great  and 
vital  principles  of  the  Gospel  were  at  stake, 
it  was  bad  policy  for  the  friends  of  true  reli- 
gion to  allow  themselves  to  be  alienated  and 
divided  by  questions  concerning  clerical  dress, 
or  even  the  external  order  of  the  Church. 
The  kind  and  friendly  things  of  this  nature 
which  he  so  frequently  uttered,  were  no  doubt, 
misinterpreted,  as  indicating  a  more  favoura- 
ble opinion  of  the  Prelacy  of  England,  than  he 
really  entertained,  or  ever  meant  to  express. 
I  shall  trespass  on  your  patience,  Mr.  Ed- 
itor, only  by  making  one  statement  more. 
Calvin  was  so  far  from  ever  alleging  that  the 
Genevan  form  of  church  government  was 
adopted  by  him  from  necessity  and  not  from 
choice,  that  he,  on  the  contrary,  steadfastly 
maintained  that  it  was  strictly  agreeable  to 
the  Avord  of  God,  and  that  which  he  felt  him- 
self bound,  by  obedience  to  Christ,  to  estab- 
lish and  defend.  "  Besides,''  says  he,  "  that 
our  conscience  acquits  us  in  the  sight  of  God, 
the  thing  itself  will  answer  for  us  in  the  sight 


APPENDIX.  113 

of  men.  Nobody  has  yet  appeared  that 
could  prove  that  we  had  altered  any  one 
thing  which  God  has  commanded,  or  that 
Ave  have  appointed  any  new  thing,  contrary 
to  his  word,  or  that  we  have  turned  aside 
from  the  truth  to  follow  any  evil  opinion. 
On  the  contrary  it  is  manifest  that  we  have 
reformed  our  church  merely  by  God's  word, 
which  is  the  only  rule  by  which  it  is  to  be 
ordered,  and  lawfully  defended.  It  is,  indeed, 
an  unpleasant  work  to  alter  what  has  been  for- 
merly in  use,  were  it  not  that  the  order  which 
God  has  once  fixed  must  be  esteemed  by  us 
as  sacred  and  inviolable;  insomuch,  that  if  it 
has,  for  a  time,  been  laid  aside,  it  must  of 
necessity,  (and  whatever  the  consequences 
should  prove,)  be  restored  again.  No  anti- 
quity, no  prescription  of  custom,  may  be  al- 
lowed to  be  an  obstacle  in  this  case,  that  the 
government  of  the  church  which  God  has 
appointed,  should  not  be  perpetual,  since  the 
Lord  himself  has  once  fixed  it."  Epis.  ad 
quendam  Curatum — In  Calvin.  Epist.  p. 
386. 

Such  are  the  testimonies  which  satisfy  me 
that  Calvin  was  a  sincere  and  uniform  advo- 
cate of  Presbyterian  church  government,  and 
that  if  he  ever  wished  to  introduce  Prelacy 
into  his  church  at  Geneva,  we  must  despair 
of  establishing  any  fact  by  historical  records. 
That  Bishop  Ives  was  a  real  believer  in  the 
truth  of  all  that  he  asserted,  I  never  enter- 
tained the  least  doubt.     But  I  have  as  little 


114  APPENDIX. 

doubt,  that  it  is  totally  destitute  of  any  solid 
foundation.  Either  Calvin  had  no  such  de- 
sire as  the  bishop  ascribes  to  him,  or  he  was 
one  of  the  most  weak  and  inconsistent  men 
that  ever  breathed.  That  nobody  ever 
thought  him. 

I  am,  Mr.  Editor,  yours  respectfully, 

Samuel  Miller* 

Princeton,  Dec.  6,  1841, 


ADDENDA. 


The  estimation  in  which  the  character  and 
learning  of  Calvin  have  been  held,  may  be 
seen  from  the  following  testimonies. 

"He  lived  fifty  four  years,  ten  months, 
and  seventeen  days;  half  of  which  time 
he  passed  in  the  sacred  ministry.  His  sta- 
ture was  of  a  middle  size,  his  complexion 
dark  and  pallid,  his  eyes  brilliant  even  till 
death,  expressing  the  acuteness  of  his  un- 
derstanding. He  lived  nearly  without  sleep. 
His  power  of  memory  was  almost  incredible ; 
and  his  judgment  so  sound,  that  his  decisions 
often  seemed  almost  oracular.  In  his  words 
he  was  sparing;  and  he  despised  an  artificial 
eloquence:  yet  was  he  an  accomplished  writer: 
and,  by  the  accuracy  of  his  mind,  and  his 
practice  of  dictating  to  an  amanuensis,  he  at- 
tained to  speak  little  differently  from  what  he 
would  have  written.  The  consistency  and 
uniformity  of  his  doctrine,  from  first  to  last, 
are  scarcely  to  be  paralleled.  Nature  had 
formed  him  grave;  yet  in  the  intercourse  of 
social  life  no  one  showed  more  suavity.  He 
exercised  great  forbearance  towards  all  such 
infirmities  in  others  as  are  consistent  with  in- 
tegrity— not  overawing  his  weaker  brethren: 
but  towards  flattery,  and  every  species  of  in- 


116  ADDENDA. 

sincerity,  especially  where  religion  was  con- 
cerned, he  was  severe  and  indignant.  He 
was  naturally  irritable:  and  this  fault  was  in- 
creased by  the  excessive  laboriousness  of  his 
life :  yet  the  Spirit  of  God  had  taught  him  to 
govern  both  his  temper  and  his  tongue. — That 
so  many  and  so  great  virtues  both  in  public 
and  in  private  life  should  have  called  forth 
against  him  many  enemies,  no  one  will  won- 
der who  duly  considers  what  has  ever  befal- 
len eminent  men,  both  in  sacred  and  profane 
history.  Those  enemies  brand  him  as  a  here- 
tic: but  Christ  suffered  under  the  same  re- 
proach. He  was  expelled,  say  they  from 
Geneva.  True,  he  was,  but  he  was  solicited 
to  return.  He  is  charged  with  ambition^ea, 
with  aspiring  at  a  new  popedom.  An  extra- 
ordinary charge  to  be  brought  against  a  man 
who  chose  his  kind  of  life,  and  in  this  state, 
in  this  church,  which  I  might  truly  call  the 
very  seat  of  poverty.  They  say  again  that 
he  coveted  wealth.  Yet  all  his  worldly  goods, 
including  his  library,  which  brought  a  high 
price,  scarcely  amounted  to  three  hundred 
crowns.  Well  might  he  say  in  his  preface  to 
the  book  of  Psalms,  <  That  I  am  not  a  lover 
of  money,  if  I  fail  of  persuading  men  while  I 
live,  my  death  will  demonstrate/  How  small 
his  stipend  was  the  senate  knows :  yet  they 
can  bear  witness  that,  so  far  from  being  dis- 
satisfied with  it,  he  pertinaciously  refused  an 
increase  when  it  was  offered  him.  He  de- 
lighted, forsooth,  in  luxury  and  indulgence! 
Let  his  labours  answer  the  charge.     What 


ADDENDA.  117 

accusations  will  not  some  men  bring  against 
him?  But  no  refutation  of  them  is  wanting 
to  those  persons  who  knew  him  while  he 
lived ;  and  they  will  want  none,  among  pos- 
terity, with  men  of  judgment  who  shall  col- 
lect his  character  from  his  writings.  Having 
given  with  good  faith  the  history  of  his  life 
and  of  his  death,  after  sixteen  years'  observa- 
tion of  him,  I  feel  myself  warranted  to  declare, 
that  in  him  was  proposed  to  all  men  an  illus- 
trious example  of  the  life  and  death  of  a  Chris- 
tian :  so  that  it  will  be  found  as  difficult  to 
emulate,  as  it  is  easy  to  calumniate  him." — 
Beza. 

"  It  is  impossible  to  refuse  him  the  praise 
of  vast  knowledge,  exquisite  judgment,  a 
penetration  which  is  uncommon,  a  prodigious 
memory,  and  admirable  temperance  and  so- 
briety .  .  .  Affairs  public  and  private,  eccle- 
siastical and  civil,  occupied  him  in  succession, 
and  often  all  together.  Consulted  from  all 
quarters  both  at  home  and  abroad;  carrying 
on  a  correspondence  with  all  the  churches 
and  all  the  learned  men  of  Europe,  with  the 
princes  and  other  persons  of  high  distinction, 
who  had  embraced  the  reformed  religion;  it 
seems  almost  inconceivable  how  one  man 
could  be  capable  of  so  many  things,  and  how 
he  should  not  sink  under  the  weight  of  the 
business  which  pressed  upon  him.  The  ene- 
my of  all  pomp ;  modest  in  his  whole  deport- 
ment ;  perfectly  disinterested  and  generous, 
and  even  entertaining  a  contempt  for  riches; 


118  ADDENDA. 

he  made  himself  not  less  respected  for  the 
qualities  of  his  heart,  than  admired  for  the 
powers  of  his  understanding.  When  the  coun- 
cil wished  to  make  him  a  present  of  five  and 
twenty  crowns  on  occasion  of  his  continued 
illness,  he  refused  to  accept  it;  because,  he 
said,  since  he  then  rendered  no  service  to  the 
church,  so  far  from  meriting  any  extraordi- 
nary recompense  he  felt  scruples  about  receiv- 
ing his  ordinary  stipend:  and  a  few  days  be- 
fore his  death  he  absolutely  refused  a  part  of 
his  appointments  which  had  become  due  .  .  . 
He  always  presided  in  the  company  of  pas- 
tors. Without  envy  they  saw  him,  by  reason 
of  his  rare  merit,  which  raised  him  far  above 
all  his  colleagues,  occupy  the  first  place  .... 
When  his  frequent  illnesses  prevented  his 
being  regularly  present  among  them,  they 
had  requested  Beza  to  supply  his  place.  A 
few  days  after  Calvin's  death,  Beza  declined 
this  service,  and  at  the  same  time  recom- 
mended to  them  not  in  future  to  entrust  an 
office  of  such  importance  permanently  to  any 
individual — safely  as  it  might  have  been  com- 
mitted to  Calvin,  and  due  as  it  justly  was  to 
his  services —  .  .  .  but  rather  to  choose  a  fresh 
moderator  every  year,  who  should  simply  be 
considered  as  primus  inter  pares — presiding 
among  his  equals.  This  proposition  was  un- 
animously approved,  and  Beza  himself  not- 
withstanding the  pleas  on  which  he  would 
have  been  excused,  was  immediately  chosen 
the  first  moderator,  as  possessing  all  the  re- 


ADDENDA.  119 

quisite  qualifications:  and  the  choice  was 
sanctioned  by  the  council." — Spon's  History 
of  Geneva. 

"  This  (his  superiority  to  the  love  of  mo- 
ney) is  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  victo- 
ries virtue  and  magnanimity  can  obtain  over 
nature,  even  in  those  who  are  ministers  of 
the  gospel.  Calvin  has  left  behind  him  many 
who  imitated  him  in  his  active  life,  his  zeal 
and  affection  for  the  cause;  they  employ  their 
voices,  their  pens,  their  steps  and  solicitations, 
for  the  advancement  of  the  kingdom  of  God, 
but  then  they  take  care  not  to  forget  them- 
selves, and  are,  generally  speaking,  a  demon- 
stration that  the  church  is  a  bountiful  mother, 
and  that  nothing  is  lost  in  her  service  .... 
Such  a  will  as  this  of  Calvin,  and  such  a  dis- 
interestedness, is  a  thing  so  very  extraordi- 
nary, as  might  make  even  those  who  cast 
their  eyes  on  the  philosophers  of  Greece  say 
of  him,  <  I  have  not  found  so  great  faith,  no 
not  in  Israel.'     When  Calvin  was  taking  his 
leave  of  those  of  Strasburg,  in  order  to  return 
to  Geneva,  they  offered  to  continue  his  free- 
dom, and  the  revenue  of  a  prebend  they  had 
assigned  him :  he  accepted  the  first,  but  re- 
jected the  latter  ....  He  carried  one  of  his 
brothers  with  him  to  Geneva,  without  ever 
thinking  of  advancing  him  to  any  honours, 
as  others  would  have  done  with  his  great 
credit  .  .  .  Even  his  enemies  say  he  had  him 
taught  the  trade  of  a  book-binder,  which  he 
exercised  all  his  life." — Bayle. 

"  We  should  be  injurious  unto  virtue  itself, 


120  ADDENDA. 

if  we  did  derogate  from  them  whom  their 
industry  hath  made  great.  Two  things  of 
principal  moment  there  are,  which  have  de- 
servedly procured  him  honour  throughout  the 
world:  the  one  his  exceeding  pains  in  compos- 
ing the  Institutions  of  Christian  Religion,  the 
other  his  no  less  industrious  travails  for  expo- 
sition of  holy  scripture,  according  unto  the 
same  institutions.  In  which  two  things  who- 
soever they  were  that  after  him  bestowed 
their  labour,  he  gained  the  advantage  of  pre- 
judice against  them  if  they  gainsayed,  and 
of  glory  above  them  if  they  consented." — 
Hooker. 

"After  the  holy  scriptures,  I  exhort  the 
students  to  read  the  Commentaries  of  Calvin : 
.  .  .  for  I  tell  them  that  he  is  incomparable  in 
the  interpretation  of  scripture ;  and  that  his 
Commentaries  ought  to  be  held  in  greater  es- 
timation than  all  that  is  delivered  to  us  in  the 
writings  of  the  ancient  Christian  fathers:  so 
that,  in  a  certain  eminent  spirit  of  prophecy, 
I  give  the  preeminence  to  him  beyond  most 
others,  indeed  beyond  them  all.  I  add,  that, 
with  regard  to  what  belongs  to  common 
places,  his  Institutes  must  be  read  after  the 
Catechism,  as  a  more  ample  interpretation. 
But  to  all  this  I  subjoin  the  remark,  that  they 
must  be  perused  with  cautious  choice,  like 
all  other  human  compositions." — Jlrminius. 


THE  END. 


